


Vampires Don't Exist

by sosaveme



Category: Twilight Series - Stephenie Meyer
Genre: F/F, F/M, Historical Elements, Now complete, On the Run, Original Characters - Freeform, Original Female Character - Freeform, Underage Drinking, Underage Smoking, Vampires, also on FFN, from made up creatures not the law, many oc's - Freeform, originally posted 3 may-9 september 2018 on ffn, she has bigger plans than anyone realizes, zeus is a woman
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-05
Updated: 2018-10-10
Packaged: 2019-07-25 18:54:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 22
Words: 24,813
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16203608
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sosaveme/pseuds/sosaveme
Summary: Caroline: a high school senior, eighteen years of age. She's smart, funny, and cunning. But alone.Alice: a vampire, born in the early 20th century, suffering from a recent break up with the one she thought was meant for her. And she's taken an odd step back in her bloodlust that was supposed to have faded long ago.The two meet under unusual circumstances, and are unknowingly partnered up to fight against evil beings known only as the Shadows by a higher power, and maybe they'll be able to learn more about themselves along the way. Follow Lin and Alice as they navigate feelings, angry goddesses, and restless souls that won't leave until they get what they want.





	1. Prologue: The Bar

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: the only things in this story that belong to me are the plot line, original characters (Caroline, etc.), and the Shadows.

Caroline stood outside Dark Horse with a cigarette in her hand. She sighed. She really should be getting back to her house--it was one in the morning. She could wait a second or two longer though. Her father could wait. Right now she just wanted to be away from everything. Away from everyone.

She took a drag of the cigarette, appreciating the numb feeling that was beginning to wash over her, accompanied with the dizzy feeling of having had too much to drink.

“That’ll kill you, you know,” a voice said from behind.

Caroline whirled around. “Who are you?” she asked the shadowy figure standing in the Dark Horse’s doorway. She felt the world spinning. Maybe she’d had more to drink than she had originally thought.

“Hmm. I don’t know. Who do you want me to be?” the voice asked. Caroline was fairly certain that it was the voice of a woman, but she couldn’t be sure. When the voice stepped into the dim streetlight, Caroline saw that it was indeed coming from a woman. She tried to control her actions, knowing that alcohol was clouding some of her judgment and obstructing her from moving properly.

“Okay, what’s your name?” Caroline asked. She was very aware that her words were slurred and did not sound right. She giggled slightly. “You’re pretty,” she smiled.

“Well, thank you. My name is… hm. Let’s go with Jane.”  _ Jane _ smiled at Caroline. “And I’m a creepy vampire that’s going to take you back to your house because you’ve had too much to drink, Caroline.”

“A vampire?” Caroline laughed. “You’re certainly pale enough to be one! But vampires don’t exist. Only in my imagination.” Caroline had an unhealthy obsession with the undead creatures, but she still knew the difference between reality and fiction. It was only much later when she was sober again that she realized she had never introduced herself to this stranger, and yet the young woman knew her name

“I am a vampire. I even have the fangs to prove it.”  _ Jane _ showed her teeth. Caroline concluded that she was very drunk and hallucinating or dreaming at this point. She decided to go with it.

“Okay then,” Caroline giggled. “Where are we off to, Ms. Vampire?”

Jane took her arm, removed and punched out Caroline’s cigarette, and started heading towards the street where Caroline’s car was parked. Another thing that she had not mentioned. “We are heading home. I think that you’ve had enough to drink and smoke for one night. You don’t want to have lung cancer before you’re twenty.”

Caroline groaned. “But I don’t want to have to deal with my father right now! He’s such an asshole! All he wants me to do is homework and chores and take care of the bills and go to work and take care of  _ him _ . He doesn’t care about me, until I make a mistake, and then he’s all over me and grounding me and hitting me, and I hate it.” Caroline knew that she shouldn’t be spilling her guts to Jane like this, but she couldn’t help it. “Can’t I go home with you?”

“Well, first of all, you don’t know me, and second, I don’t think that you’d agree with my family. Come on. Into the car. No, you are not driving. You are way above the legal limit.” Caroline grudgingly agreed and entered the passenger seat.

When they pulled into Caroline’s front drive, Jane helped Caroline out of the car and up to the door. “Good night, Caroline. Don’t leave this house until morning.”

“Fine, bossypants. And you can call me Lin.” With that, Lin strode into her house and barely made it to her bed before collapsing. She awoke several times later that night to vomit. When she finally dragged herself once and for all from her alcohol-induced slumber at nine AM Saturday morning, she vaguely realized that she had had one hell of a dream involving a vampire that knew way too much about her. Except it had felt way too real to be a dream, even though the woman had  _ looked _ so much like a vampire now that she thought about it. Fangs. Red eyes. Pale skin. Pointed ears.  _ Don’t be silly, _ Lin told herself.  _ Vampires don’t exist. _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you liked the first chapter!


	2. Chapter One: Um...

 

Caroline woke up the following morning in a bit of a hase. What had happened last night? She barely remembered. Had that woman even been real? Perhaps she could have been, but if she was, she probably wasn’t exactly as Lin had seen her. Much of that had probably been her imagination. She sighed. She had a terrible headache.  _ That’s what happens when you drink too much, _ she thought irritably to herself.

She got up. No point in spending the day in bed. She quickly got dressed and skipped eating breakfast before heading to her car and driving away. Her father wasn’t up yet. Typical. She knew she should leave a note, but she didn’t, just to spite him.

She drove to the mall because she had nowhere better to be. She figured that she could just hang around a Forever 21 until she spotted someone she knew from school. And so she did.

When Lin got to the mall, she got herself a coffee at Starbucks and then sat down on a bench right by Forever 21. She stayed like that, sitting there, looking at her phone for about 30 minutes. That’s when she saw the woman. For some reason--she wasn’t sure why, but she did--she kept her head down and tried not to be noticed. She didn’t wanted the woman--what was her name?--to think that Lin was just some random drunk in the streets. The woman was with someone this time, though. A man, probably around 25.

Lin tried to examine them through the corner of her eye, so as not to be noticed. Both of them were pail enough to be vampires. The woman didn’t have pointy ears anymore though, and her eyes were brown. An odd, murky, red-brown that didn’t entirely seem natural. The man was saying something to her.

“That’s enough, Alice! We aren’t talking about this in public! What you did was against the rules and you know it! Please just come home and don’t cause us any more trouble!”

“No. I like it here, and as long as I don’t go outside on sunny days, everything’s fine. Besides, I’ve already been to highschool several--”

“I said that this is the end of the subject! Besides, be careful what you say in public, Alice. Someone could hear something that they shouldn’t,” he cut her off.

“Fine. But I’m not going back. I can’t stand to be around Jasper anymore, and the rest of you aren’t helping. You can’t make me, Carlisle, and I’m not going of my own free will. I’m staying here.”

The man--Carlisle--sighed heavily. “Alright, Alice, you win. I won’t make you come back. Just--please abide by the main rule that we have. Please. I don’t want any deaths to come of you.” And then he just walked away, disappearing into the crowd.

Lin frowned. That had been an odd conversation. It almost made her wonder… but vampires didn’t exist, and that was that.

Alice sighed, then spun around. Her gaze fell on Lin. “Oh, hey, Caroline. Didn’t expect to see you here.”  
“Same to you,” Lin said nervously. “Listen, I don’t know how much of what happened last night was what actually happened, but that’s not what I’m usually like.”

“Um, yeah. People don’t usually act normally when they’re drunk. That’s not how it works.” Lin frowned.

“Yeah,” was all she could think to say.

“How much of that conversation did you hear?” Alice asked. She sounded kind of worried.

“Not enough to understand what the fuck you guys were talking about. To me, it sounded like some sort of weird vampire shit, but that’s just because I have a weird obsession with the things and from what I remember of last night, you said that you were a vampire, but that might have just been a dream.”

Alice laughed uneasily. “Yeah, I’m not a vampire. I just said that last night to be silly. Hey, do you want to go get coffee?”

Lin frowned. Was that a good idea? Alice was a complete stranger. But Alice had also helped her out last night, and seemed like a good enough person. And okay, Alice was pretty damn hot. “Ah, yeah, I love coffee!”  _ Idiot, _ Lin thought. Why couldn’t she have said something cool, or at least something  _ normalish _ .  _ I love coffee. _ Ug. She needed to work on how she talked to pretty people.

Alice smiled. “Great! Come on. Let’s go. Do you want to get coffee at the Starbucks here, or drive to the Dutch Bros down the road?”

“Let’s go with Dutch Bros. They’re better.”

“Cool. Do you have a car? I just walked here.”  
“Um, yeah. Where do you live? It’s a pretty long ways from where I saw you last night, which is where I assumed you live.”

“Oh, around.”

Lin cocked her head. That was a very, very vague answer. Oh well. That was fine. On their way to coffee, they sat in silence. Lin turned on the radio. Alice just stared out the window. Lin wondered why Alice had invited her to coffee. When she asked as much, Alice just told her that Lin looked as though she could use something in her system other than day-old alcohol. Lin didn’t bother asking how Alice had known that she hadn’t had breakfast.

They got coffee, and then sat in the parking lot for a few minutes, drinking it. Lin tried to make pleasant small talk, but before long, it was back to silence. Alice furrowed her brow, as though she were deep in thought.

“Whatcha thinkin about?” Lin asked.

“Oh, just my ex-boyfriend. We just broke up.”  
“I’m so sorry! I hope it wasn’t too nasty! What was his name?”

“Jasper. And it was nasty. We disagreed about something, and he was pretty mean about it. But don’t be sorry; I saw it coming and there was nothing anyone could have done about it.”

“Okay then,” Lin said.

Suddenly, Alice’s head jerked up. “Is something wrong?” Lin wondered.

“Get down,” Alice said quietly.

“What? Why?”

“Just do it. Do it now!”

That was the last thing that either of them said before the world erupted in fire.


	3. Chapter Two: Explanations... Maybe

_ Suddenly, Alice’s head jerked up. “Is something wrong?” Lin wondered. _

_ “Get down,” Alice said quietly. _

_ “What? Why?” _

_ “Just do it. Do it now!” _

_ That was the last thing that either of them said before the world erupted in fire. _

Lin expected to be dead. Finally. She expected that to be the end of everything. But it wasn’t. Suddenly, she was flying through the air. The explosion was behind her. She felt everything whirling by her. She was aware that someone was carrying her, but she didn’t know who or how.

Then, all of the sudden, she was stopping and being set down. She felt queasy. Lin bent down and hurled up what little bile was left inside of her along with the remains of her coffee. Alice bent over her. “Are you okay?”

“What just happened?” Lin panted. She jerked her head up to look at Alice. “What the hell was that?”

“It’s hard to explain,” Alice started.

“And where the hell are we?” Lin whirled around, trying to figure it out.  _ Vampires _ .

“A forest.”

“I  _ know _ that! But… where are we?”

“Ah. We’re just outside of city limits.”

“But how did we get here? This should have been miles away!”

“Once again, it’s hard to explain.”

“Did you carry me all the way here?” asked Lin.

“Yes,” Alice said.

“What on earth are you, Alice?” _ Vampire. _

“I didn’t introduce myself,” Alice said. “Or at least, when I did, I told you that I was Jane.”

“Okay, well I have no memory of that, and I heard Carlisle call you Alice.”

“Alright,” Alice said. “We need to get you to safety.”

“What do you mean? What is going on? And will you just give me a straight answer as to how we got here?”

Alice sighed. “I can’t tell you. That could put you even more at risk than you already are.”

“Please tell me that I don’t have to go back home at the very least.”

“No. I was wrong to bring you back there yesterday. All I knew was that they were in the bar and they were tracking my family, and I couldn’t bring you back with me because then you’d stay in danger. Evidently, they still followed you.”

“How do you know that they didn’t just follow you? I didn’t have to deal with them--whoever  _ them _ is--until you took me to coffee.”

“I was trying to get you away from them. I only knew that you were behind me in the mall because of them. I felt them sitting there behind me as soon as Carlisle left, so I was trying to see why they were there. I had originally assumed that they had no interest in me any more, so I was fairly surprised that they were there. That’s when I saw you there, and I was pretty sure that it was you who they were after. So I decided to take you to coffee just to see if they’d follow. They did. And they almost killed you.”

“Who is they?”

“The Shadows,” was all Alice said before she picked up Lin and told her to hang on.

_ The shadows? _ wondered Lin.  _ How can the shadows be following me and attacking me? And even if they are, why would they be interested in me? _

Then they were moving again, and Lin was holding on for dear life. She clutched Alice like her life depended on it. And to be honest, it probably did. When they finally stopped what felt like hours later, Lin vomited again. They were in another city. Maybe in another state. “How do you do that?” she asked when she’d stopped dry heaving.

“It’s hard to explain.”

“Stop saying that!” Lin cried. “I’m sick of this! Just give me a straight forward answer as to what’s going on and why! And how!”

“I can’t,” Alice said.

“Fine! Then  how are shadows trying to kill me?”

“They aren’t trying to kill you, they just want your magic. And they aren’t just shadows. They are  _ the _ Shadows.”

“Magic? I have no idea what you’re talking about!”

“Hmm. Okay then.” Alice seemed thoughtful. “Then you aren’t what I thought you were, but you don’t smell like one, either.”

Lin finally looked around her. They were standing in an empty alleyway in between two very tall buildings. It was sunny out, but the buildings had left them in a dark shadow.

“Stay here for three seconds,” Alice said. Then she was gone. For three seconds. She just zipped away in a strange blur, and when she was back, she had a dark hoodie. “Come on,” she said as she grabbed Lin by the arm.

“Where are we going now?”

“Second leg of our journey. We need to get as far away from there as possible before they can catch us. We might have to go to my family for help, but I’m hoping that we don’t.” And then they were off again.


	4. Chapter Three: The Hotel

After what really was hours of travel, they finally arrived at the other end of the continental United States. Lin had somehow managed to fall asleep, so she'd missed most of the countless stops. Alice knew that they couldn't stay in one place for long, but she also knew that they couldn't keep going forever. They had to figure out some way to get rid of their problem as well.

So, she took them to the Violet Hotel. It was the nearest one to their most recent stop, and there were enough cars in the parking lot that Alice was pretty sure it was safe enough for one night-the more people that were there, the less likely that a Shadow would attack them. If they had any brains at all, they'd try to keep their uprising a secret for as long as possible so that people couldn't start trying to counter it. If they destroyed an entire hotel, someone was bound to notice.

 

In the morning when Lin was awake they could discuss their options. She hoped that Lin was smart enough to help with the planning. She knew that meant she'd have to explain a lot to Lin-more than what she probably should-but she had been the one who had been entrusted with Lin's life and they needed to stop the Shadows before they became a worldwide problem and was the death of them all.

 

She skidded to a halt near the door and walked in. She shifted Lin from a position being strung over her shoulder to a baby-cradle sort of carry. Alice headed up to the front desk and paid for a room for the two of them.

 

She put Lin down gently on the bed and began pacing around the room. She tried to formulate a plan, but her mind kept wandering to Jasper. It had been a messy break up. She'd been seeing it coming for a while. In fact, it was the only vision of the future she'd had in the past year. Bella and Edward had gotten married, had their kid, and then there had been the battle with Volturi, and then everything had seemed fine. But then she stopped having visions, and none of them could figure out why. She didn't mind-it was nice not having to see everything for once. But it also made her worry. Why could she no longer see? It was like being blind. Then she had one vision-the one of her and Jasper breaking up. Why that, she had no idea, but it had been a different vision than normal. It had been hazy and out of focus and strange like it wasn't what was supposed to happen but was going to anyway.

 

Not long after, she started craving human blood in a way that she hadn't since she had first become a vampire. She tried to keep going to school, but it just got worse and worse. And she ended up killing someone.

 

That's what had caused the break up.

 

Jasper was always battling that desire, and he didn't understand how it had just crept up on Alice. They had argued and argued and everyone had tried to help mediate, but no one could. It was like a gasoline fire that had just erupted out of nowhere and could no longer be put out.

They broke up and Alice ran.

 

She had another vision, but it wasn't of the future. A woman had appeared to her and spoken. All she said was, " _ Protect the magic girl. You'll know who she is when you find her. Protect her with your life for she will save us from the Shadows." _ Alice had tried to question her about this cryptic message, but she didn't get anywhere. The woman vanished without speaking any more. It wasn't long after that that Alice had discovered what the woman meant by "the Shadows."

She had been searching for what little meaning she could find in the woman's message, and she finally had. In a library out in a tiny town in Washington when she found an old book of fables that looked like something that she should open. She didn't know why, but she just felt as though she should open it.

 

And she did.

 

She flipped through it and found a story about how once every few thousand years, a pair of Shadows break free of the darkened areas that they should live in and escape into the real world. Someone would come to lock them up again-usually a magical being-and that was that for the next few thousand years. Those people usually never married and usually never found happiness. They also had never found a way to lock the Shadows up forever.

 

Now, Alice was determined to get rid of them for good. Unfortunately, she had absolutely no idea how. The books had said that the Shadows were sinister beings that didn't take kindly to being reckoned with. They wanted one thing, and one thing only-world domination. They would stop at nothing to get there. The books said nothing about how to get rid of them, other than that the Chosen Ones always found a pathway of hope and light to lead the demons down and that that pathway would not only lock up the Shadows, but also destroy all of the hope and light within the Chosen Ones.

 

"Where are we?" Lin asked.

 

Alice was jolted out of her trance-like state. "Sorry, what was that?" Alice realized that she must have been lost in thought for a long time. The sun was rising and she could hear Lin's stomach growling.

 

"I  _ said  _ where are we?"

 

"We're in a hotel."

 

"I can see that. Where are we?"

 

"It's called Violet Hotel," Alice offered.

 

"What town? What state?  _ Where _ ?"

 

"I think that we're in Virginia."

 

"Virginia?" Lin asked skeptically. "How long did it take to get here?"

 

"I don't know. A few hours, I guess."

 

"Okay. Can you tell me anything now? Like how you keep going so fast? Or why exactly these Shadows are after me?"

 

"They want to absorb all of your magic before you can use it against them. Then they want to take over the world. I want you to help me stop them since you can't really do anything else-especially stay put-right now. You need to keep moving, so I'm going to keep you moving, and we're going to stop them together."

 

"Oh, no, no, no, no, noooooooooooooo. I'm sorry, but I can't be a part of this. I've got to be dreaming right now." Lin pinched herself. "This is not happening. I am not going to be involved in some sort of diabolical plan to stop some crazy beings from taking over the world." Everything was starting to come back to her. She had practically been kidnapped. Not really, since she had agreed to go, but it was close enough. It was all starting to feel so real now.

 

_ Hmm… I've got to get her to help me somehow! She's the only one who can stop them, _ Alice thought, quite annoyed.

 

"You can, and you will be. Look, this is your only option. Either way, you're going to have to stop them, and I think that you'd much rather do it with some help."

 

"Why? Why can't someone else do it? I'm not really the adventurous type, let alone the save the world type!"

 

"You're the Chosen One. You have to. You don't have another choice."

 

"What?"

 

"The Chosen One." Alice sighed. Then she explained as much she knew about what was going on to Lin. "So will you help me?" she asked, defeated.

 

Lin paused. "Fine. But will you tell me what you are?"

 

"Do you have a guess?" Alice decided to play it the way Edward had.

 

"Maybe? I don't know. I'm probably wrong."

 

"Then you're even stupider than Bella, and that's saying something."

 

"Fine. Vampire?"

 

"Yes." Alice grinned, and she could tell that Lin believed her. "Why do you believe me?"

 

"I don't know. I've always had a weird obsession with vampires, and I guess that I've always just sort of hoped that they exist. Or that some sort of mythical creature exists. I'm a total geek, I know. It's lame, but I've read practically every popular vampire novel ever written-as long as it's in a language that I can speak, which would be English and French."

 

"It isn't stupid. I think that it's kind of cute," Alice said with a small smile.

 

"Okay then," Lin replied, smiling back. She still felt uneasy about all of this.

 

"We should probably start trying to do some research and figure out how the previous Chosen Ones managed to get rid of the Shadows."

 

"Yeah. Luckily, I'm good at research." Lin tried to sound upbeat and like this was going to be a fun adventure, but it was more to try to convince herself than Alice.

 

"Okay, then. I've read that the past last ones appeared around New York City in the early 17 hundreds. We might be able to find something there."

 

"Should we go, then?"

 

"Not before you get some food, Lin."

 

"Alright. What about you? Do you need any… blood?" Lin asked uneasily. She liked the idea of vampires partially because they weren't real. But now it was completely different. A blood-sucking parasite-type creature was standing before her, proposing that they attempt to save the world together. It was entirely and completely insane in real life. It all felt so unreal.

_ How long is this going to take? _ She wondered.  _ I only have a few weeks until school starts again, and I can't miss my senior year! _ She knew that it was a little silly of her to be worrying about her education when they were talking about the end of the world, but it the world didn't end, she wanted a good job that wouldn't end her up on the streets.

 

"No, I'm good. I hunted a few days ago," Alice said. "And if it makes you feel any better, I don't usually drink human blood."

 

"Usually? Also, why are your eyes red now when they weren't yesterday?"

 

"Yesterday, I had in contacts. But they sort of disintegrated. That's what happens when I wear contacts for too long." Alice sighed. "And yes, usually. In my  _ family _ , we joke that we're 'vegetarians.' We don't drink human blood. But I did a little bit ago. It's why my eyes are red. It was long enough ago, however, that I can be around humans without being tempted to kill them. I thought that it would take longer for that feeling to go away, but it hasn't. At some point soon, my eyes should turn back to gold."

 

Lin looked disgusted. "You actually ate a human?"

 

"No, I just drank his blood. What did you expect from a vampire? Besides, he was a murderer and wasn't going to be caught any time soon. He had it coming."

 

"I don't know what I expected, but a blood sucking vampire is now all of the sudden standing in front of me, as real as my life and as solid as a brick of concrete, and it's seeming a little scarier than I always imagined." Lin had relaxed a little at the "murderer" part, but still seemed uneasy.

Alice sighed. "The world isn't going to save itself. I promise to not drink the blood of any humans while we are together-only animals-if it helps. Right now we need to get going." She knew that she wasn't going to be able to keep that up, though. She still felt a stronger urge than usual, and the longer she went without drinking blood, the more powerful it became. She needed Caroline to work with her, though, so she needed to at least try to act like she wasn't tempted.

"Fine. But only because the weight of the world hangs in the balance. I'm going to get a beagle from downstairs Hotels usually have those, right? Then we can go."

 

Alice only nodded. Caroline got her beagle, and then they were off again, this time to New York City.


	5. Chapter Four: Libraries, Discussions, and Dead Ends

When they arrived at New York, the first thing that Alice did was get--okay,  _ steal _ \--another pair of contacts. She couldn’t be seen with bright red eyes--it would draw way too much attention. Lin wasn’t too happy about the whole stealing thing. Or the vampire part. Or most of it really, but the world was at stake, so she could deal with it.

 

But now that she thought about it, a lot of that probably wasn’t true. Alice was definitely a vampire--she’d showed Lin the teeth that she usually tried so hard to hide, plus there was the super speed and strength. But what about the Shadows? How real were they? Lin had her doubts. Then again, they were in New York goddamn City about to start researching them, so there had to be some truth to it.

 

Vampires. They were actually real. That was finally starting to sink into Lin’s head. Vampires were real. She’d always hoped that some sort of mythical creature was real, especially vampires, but it was so different now. This woman had killed people to…  _ eat _ . That wasn’t cool anymore. That was scary. That was terrifying. But right now, Alice might be her only chance at survival if these Shadows were real. Alice might be the  _ world’s  _ only chance at survival. That was an interesting thought--a creature that wanted to eat them was also trying to save them.  _ Raising pigs for slaughter _ . It was disgusting.

 

They were heading towards the library nearest to them now. It was the oldest library in New York City, so hopefully it would have what they were looking for. It wasn’t long before they got inside. They started with the mythology section. Nothing. Folk tales. Nothing. Fairy tales. Nothing. Finally, after several hours of searching and a stop at Taco Bell, they found what they were looking for in the fables section.

 

“Here!” shouted Alice.

 

“ _ SHHHHHHHHH!”  _ an annoyed librarian hushed them.

 

“Sorry,” Alice whispered.

 

“Did you find something?” asked Caroline, praying that Alice had.

 

“Why else would I be shouting at you?” Alice rolled her eyes.

 

“I don’t know. Please tell me that it’s something good and not just a small reference to the Shadows or the Chosen Ones.”

 

“I don’t know how big it is, but at least we finally have  _ something, _ ” Alice was grinning. They were both very relieved that they had finally made progress.

 

Lin looked over Alice’s shoulder, reading what was written in the fable.

 

_ The Shadows came in the night and left immediately. They were horrible beasts sent by God, and it seemed to be a warning that the people were not doing as he wished, but they didn’t know what they were doing wrong, and no matter what they did, the Shadows wouldn’t go away. _

 

Lin snorted. She wasn’t religious, but she’d go with it for now.

 

_ These beings started by just doing slight damage. They killed lesser ranked people and stayed away from children. They even took care of the witches of the area. _

 

“Witches? Why would they get rid of witches? They weren’t real. They had just been wrongfully accused of something that wasn’t even possible. Right?” asked Lin.

 

“You’re right. They weren’t witches. They were vampires. The Shadows seem to have a natural fear of vampires, probably because other than the Chosen Ones, we are the most likely to be able to stop them. They seem to try to get rid of vampires first, especially the magical ones. That’s what I thought you were at first. You don’t smell human, but you also don’t smell like a vampire, and that was confusing. You aren’t a shifter, and if you were a werewolf, I think that you’d know by now.”

 

“Huh,” Lin said, and then went back to reading.

 

_ After the witches, it was the strongest men and women. _

 

_ Probably vampires again, _ Lin mused.

 

_ Then came higher ranked officials. When they started, they were only doing things at night and when no one was around. But it seemed as though as they made progress, they became more powerful and bolder. After six months of the attacks, they started killing with others around, not only when the victims were alone. And after an estimated ten thousand deaths around the continent due to them had occurred, they began killing in other countries. _

 

_ No one had any idea how to stop them, and they just wouldn’t quit. After two years of having them around, they even stepped out of the darkness and started killing in daylight. They were picking off larger people now--kings, queens, rulers of all countries--and everyone knew that something must be done. _

 

_ As the world was beginning to disintegrate before everyone’s eyes, and unlikely hero stepped forward. Her name was Abigail. She was young and beautiful. She had a husband. But she put everything aside to save the people of Earth. _

 

_ One night after much fighting, she and her husband had a heated discussion. She had already joined the forces fighting the Shadows, which were allowing anyone who was willing to fight into their ranks, and he thought that that was bad enough as it was. But now, she wanted to end the entire battle. It would cost her her life. He tried to tell Abigail that someone else capable of stopping the Shadows would come along and she didn’t have to do this, that she  _ couldn’t _ do this, but she wouldn’t hear of it. All she said over and over again was, “I’m the only one who can stop the demons and if I don’t, we shall all perish.” She left that morning and was never heard from again. _

 

_ Three days later, just as dawn was breaking, everything went quiet. No one heard a thing. And then everything went dark. Dark as dark could be. It was a heavy, impenetrable dark that lasted for what felt like an eternity. When it finally lifted, all was well. The Shadows were gone. _

 

_ For fear that speaking of them would result in their return, few ever spoke of the Shadows again, and no historians recorded the events. It became as though it had never happened, and Abigail was all but forgotten. No one knows how she did what she did, except for the idea that she gave her sole to the light that defeated the dark and the idea that she only could do it once she let herself love the person whom she loved the most. _

 

“Well, that was useless,” Lin growned. “What are we going to do now? That led absolutely nowhere!” Now she was just frustrated. “We’ve been at this all day, and the only thing that we found was a dead end! This was completely pointless. I’m hungry, I’m tired, and I need a shower. We are leaving this library right now, Alice!” Lin was close to tears. This was so much harder in real life than it alway seemed in books.  _ What did you expect, idiot? _ Lin thought. They hadn’t even gotten to the hardest part yet, and Lin knew that. She was seriously doubting that she was cut out for this.

 

“Calm down!” Alice said, sounding worried. “It wasn’t a complete dead end. Now we know that she unlocked what she could do when she let herself love!”

 

“Oh come on! You don’t honestly think that that’s how she did it? And even if it was, that’s still completely useless!”

 

“Well, do you have any better information? Besides, a lot of the time, you can find more truth in myths and fables than you can in a history textbook. Now, you say that you’re hungry? Okay, we’ll go to a restaurant that I saw on the way in. We’ll stop at a hotel, you can shower, and then we’ll spend the night. We really shouldn’t be staying in one place for this long, but I have a feeling that you won’t have it any other way.”

 

“Thank you,” Lin said. She couldn’t believe that she was thanking a vampire. Alice had  _ killed people, _ for God’s sake, and now she was thanking this woman for taking care of her--at least sort of.

 

They went out to dinner and sat in the busiest area that they could find. “So, tell me about yourself. I know that you’re young, but I don’t know how young. I know that you drink and smoke, but I’m hoping that’s not the largest highlight of your life. You’ve mentioned not really liking your father, but that was when you were drunk so maybe not. What about your mother?” Alice tried to spur conversation. If they were going to work together, they might as well know each other well.

 

Lin furrowed her brow. “Mmm, no.”

 

“No?”

 

“No, I’m not going to tell you about myself. I have no idea how trustworthy you are, and I’ve already put my life in your hands. I’m not going to thrust you my identity as well. But just so you know, my mother’s dead, so please don’t ask about her again. I don’t like talking about it and I don’t want your sympathy.”

 

“Oh, I’m so sorry! I won’t bring it up again, I promise! I feel so sad for you, even if you don’t want me to,” Alice said. She seemed to genuinely mean it, but Lin wasn’t sure. If she was a vampire, she had probably gotten used to telling lies about who she was, where she was from, and various other things along those lines. She wasn’t ready to believe a word of what Alice said.

 

“Don’t be. I never really knew her. She died when I was two.”

 

“I’m still sorry. Growing up without a mother must have been hard for you.”

 

Lin sighed. It had been. It had been so, so hard. Her father had been stuck with a kid that he didn’t want but was going to take care of because he loved his belated wife, and so he hadn’t taken care of her the way he should have. There were many times where her failures and her shortcomings had gone unnoticed. He hadn’t been there for her when she needed him the most, and it had left her screwed up beyond belief. All he wanted her to do was take care of him. Not get good grades, or have kind friends, but take care of his dysfunctional ass. And all of that, all of that was because she didn’t have a mother. So she just nodded.

 

They got to the hotel not long after. It was fairly quiet, but it was late, so that was expected. They checked in and headed up to the room. Lin hopped into the shower immediately.

 

~~~

 

Alice heard a thump like someone falling. “Lin,” she called. “Lin, are you okay in there?” There was no answer. “Lin?” she called again, more worried this time. She rushed over to the door and tried to open it. Locked. She kicked it down. The water was still running, but Lin wasn’t in the shower. On the mirror, there was a message written in what looked like blood.

 

_ We Have Your Savior _


	6. Chapter Five: Zeus is a Woman

_Alice heard a thump like someone falling. “Lin,” she called. “Lin, are you okay in there?” There was no answer. “Lin?” she called again, more worried this time. She rushed over to the door and tried to open it. Locked. She kicked it down. The water was still running, but Lin wasn’t in the shower. On the mirror, there was a message written in what looked like blood._

 

_We Have Your Savior_

 

Not only did the message look like blood, but it also smelled like blood. It smelled like Lin. And it smelled so very appetizing. Alice hadn’t eaten in far too long. She needed to get on that, otherwise she would be absolutely useless in saving Lin--because that’s what she had to do. She had to save Lin, or else they would all perish.

 

 _Okay, first order of business--eat. Then start tracking,_ Alice thought. A human would be nice… but she didn’t have time to track one down that was alone and in an isolated area. She’d have to settle for an animal. She slipped down to Forest Park and ate an ill-fated deer. She immediately felt better, even if it wasn’t a human. Then she began tracking. It took hours to get anywhere. She could smell Lin, but not the Shadows. She hadn’t expected to be able to smell them, though, so it wasn’t much of a setback.

 

It was hard, the searching. She searched and searched and every step forward led her to a dead end. It was frustrating and it was difficult. But Alice had an eternity to search. Unfortunately, the human race didn’t have eternity before the Shadows started attacking on a larger scale and they needed their “savior” alive and in one piece, so she knew she had to pick up the pace.

 

After about a week of haphazard chasing her tail, Alice was led into an underground tomb in Alaska that she was willing to bet had not been entered by humans in several centuries--maybe longer. She carefully walked in, watching her steps as she went and trying to be as quiet as possible. She even stopped breathing.

 

As she walked deeper in, it got darker and darker. She didn’t dare light a torch or grab her phone for a flashlight, though. If anyone--any _thing_ \--was still in here, she didn’t want to risk disturbing them-- _it_ . Then she heard a _creak_ behind her.

 

Alice stiffened. Maybe it had just been her imagination. Her mind playing tricks on her. Maybe it was just an animal. But if it was an animal, it was a very strange animal because she couldn’t _smell_ anything. She also knew what she had heard. She slowly turned around in the darkness. She could barely see anymore, but she could see a silhouette. It looked like a hooded person about her height. Alice slowly, slowly began to back away, still holding her breath.

 

“Don’t be afraid, dearie!” a croaking old voice came. “I don’t mean to hurt you. I only want to help.”

 

Alice, still skeptical, continued to back away.

 

“Would it make you more comfortable for me to turn on the light?”

 

“Y-yes,” Alice said, her voice shaking. _Pull yourself together, Alice; it’s not like she can hurt you!_ Alice tried to console herself.

 

“Okay,” the old woman snapped and the cavern was suddenly ablaze with an eerie, luminescent light. “And yes, actually, I can hurt you, but I’m not going to.” She lowered her hood revealing an elderly, kind face that was wise and elegant.

 

“How--how did you do that?” Alice asked.

 

“Tell you the answer to a question you hadn’t yet asked? Oh please! You live with a mind reader, correct? You should be used to such things! You yourself previously had the ability to tell the future!”

“Used to live with,” muttered Alice.

 

“I apologize, darling; I forgot.”

 

“But aren’t you a mind reader? Why would you forget what you just read from me?”

 

“No, I’m not telepathic. I am a shaman of sorts; I suppose you could call me a fortune teller. Or if you’re feeling bold, a thief.”

 

“A thief?” Alice was starting to get confused. It was at times like this that she wished she still had her ability to tell the future.

 

“Your gifts wouldn’t work on me even if you did have them, dear.”

 

“Didn’t you just say--”

 

“I can sense all spirits and all emotions. If I focus hard, I can tell what someone could be thinking and predict their actions. It’s not the same as mind reading.”

 

“Okay then…” Alice trailed off. “Listen, I need help--”

 

“Finding your friend, I know. I’ve been searching for her too.”

 

That’s when Alice recognised the woman. She was the one who had appeared to her before. Only, she looked older now. “Who are you?”

 

“I am guide. I am your helper. Your equal. Your superior.”

 

“That’s vague,” Alice grumbled.

 

“I am older than any of the volturi. I am the mistress of life. I am a figure of ponder by humans. I am a goddess of sorts and I am in many, many stories and myths.”

 

“Could you just give me a name?” Alice asked, defeated.

 

“Well, if that’s what you wanted, you could have just said so,” the goddess said.

 

“But--”

 

“Don’t expect _me_ to do all the work. I am a very busy woman and I have things that I need to be doing. I can’t be expected to know everything about you and everything you want right away.”

 

Alice blinked at her stern tone. “Okay.”

 

“I don’t really have a name. But you can call me by one of the names given to me by the humans.”

 

“Which are?”

 

“I don’t know, Zeus, Jupiter, Amun Ra, anything like that. The humans always seem determined to make me male.”

 

“Okay then, Zeus, do you know where Lin has been taken?”

“You mean the humans’ only shot at survival? No. I’m working on it. I knew that you’d come here following them, so I was just waiting for you to arrive.”

 

“But why? Can’t you do it yourself?”

 

“I can’t leave this tomb. Not ever. It is my prison until someone releases me. I only recently discovered that I can send out simple messages to magical creatures such as yourself.”

 

“Okay then, how do I release you?” Alice wondered aloud.  
  
“Ask my imprisoners. They’ll never tell me, but I have a feeling they’ll reveal their secrets to you,” Zeus gestured to the wall.

 

Alice turned around for the first time in several minutes and examined the wall behind her. It was covered in an ancient script that she knew she had no hope of ever deciphering. “I can’t…”

 

“You don’t have to read it, honey, because you already know what it says.”

 

“No I don’t. What do you mean?” Alice turned back to Zeus. But then she realized that Zeus was right. She did know what it said. Her head whirled around to look at the wall. It was no longer pictographs, but clear, precise English. “How?...”

 

“That doesn’t matter right now. What matters right now is what it says. Read it out loud.”

 

“Can’t you read it?”

 

“No. I cannot read what they have written there. Only vampires, shifters, Shadows, and the Chosen Ones can read it. Apparently I have too much power to be able to understand.”

 

“Okay.”

 

_When all is lost, a savior will be stolen._

_When all is lost, a warrior will come into this den._

_When the Goddess has given all_

_And there is no hope left and the humans are soon to crumble with their downfall_

_The Goddess may walk out_

_And then without a doubt_

_Both Goddess and Warrior_

_May go after her_

_And then both Goddess and Warrior_

_Will either destroy and level or build and create the world once more_

 

“So it’s a prophecy after all,” Zeus said. “I was fairly certain that it was and they just didn’t want me to figure out what will allow me to leave. Come on then.”

 

“That’s it?” Alice was sort of surprised. That was all that she had to do? And now they were just going to walk out? “Shouldn’t we plan or something first?”

 

“Well, I already have a plan.”

 

“Shouldn’t I get some input? If it weren’t for me, you wouldn’t be getting out of here!”

 

“And if it weren’t for me, you never would have existed in the first place. Don’t try to pull that on me. I have a plan, and it will work. We’re leaving now.”

 

Alice grumbled. She didn’t like this, but she also needed to save Lin, and Zeus might be her only shot at that. She had sort of started to like Lin in the short time that they had been together. Plus there was the fact that the whole world was hanging in the balance. She could stick with Zeus for now until it started to look like Zeus was more of a threat than a help. She was very glad that in that moment, Zeus was preoccupied trying to open up the door and not listening in on what Alice was thinking and feeling.


	7. Chapter Six: The Darkness

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry, this is sort of a filler chapter. It's really short--like really, really short. Thanks for sticking with me for this story so far! It really means a lot to me.

Lin jolted awake. “Where am I?” she asked out loud. It was so dark. She couldn’t see anything. She couldn’t hear anything either.

 

She could barely hear the sound of her voice, as though the darkness didn’t want to be disturbed. It was almost painful—the weight of the darkness. It felt heavy and thick and like it would never go away.

 

She looked around herself. There was not even a hint of any light anywhere. Nothing. Her breath got faster. “Help! Can anyone here me?”

 

There was no answer. Only the pressing silence and darkness that wouldn’t go away and seemed as though it wanted to devour her whole. “Please!” she called again. “Anyone! I just need to be out of here!” There was still no response. She started to sob. She remembered a shadow climbing into the bathroom and then there was nothing. She had lost herself for a while, but now she was back. Back and strong again. But it was almost worse than before. It was almost worse than the listless drifting in darkness that had lasted for days—or maybe hours; it was hard to tell—because now she was fully aware of the horrible feelings of  _ alone _ and  _ hopeless _ and  _ quiet _ and  _ dark _ and  _ awful _ .

 

“Shut up, Chosen One,” a quiet, low voice came. “We don’t need to hear you crying.”

 

“Just let me out!” Lin cried.

 

“No. We can’t risk you ruining everything. You will stay here forever. You can  _ never _ leave. Not ever.”

 

“B-but….” her voice was choked and strangled and her words were coming out funny.

 

“No. That’s it. Stop talking right now or we’ll shut you up ourselves.”

 

Lin gulped.  _ Please don’t just leave me here, Alice. You have to find me, _ she prayed. She stopped crying though, if only so that they didn’t “shut her up,” which sounded fairly gruesome.  _ What have I gotten myself into? Last week, I was having a shitty summer, at odds with my father, and going to bars just like every other 17 year old, and now I’m stuck here wishing that a vampire, my captor, will come and save me! This is insanity! I hope it’s all just a dream....  _ Her thoughts trailed off. She was so scared.

She curled up into a little ball and just as she was starting to drift to sleep again, she realized that she didn’t feel anything that you’d usually feel—tired, hungry, the need to use the bathroom—and even though she didn’t feel them, she felt as though they should be there. Another realization that she had was that she was falling asleep, even though she felt wide awake.  _ That can’t be good, _ she thought. She usually had trouble falling asleep.


	8. Chapter Seven: The Run

Alice sighed. They had been traveling for eight days.  _ Eight days _ . Nothing. Zeus was still not telling her what the plan was, and Alice was getting just a little bit restless. They had to find Lin soon, but it seemed like Zeus was just leading them in circles.

 

“Can we go a little faster?” Alice asked Zeus on the morning of the ninth day as they trudged through a forest. “I could run. If you want, I’d carry you.”

 

“Oh, no, darling, I couldn’t ask you to do that. I’m content just walking.”

 

“But I’m not!” Alice cried. “We need to save Lin, and you’re wasting time  _ walking _ everywhere. At this rate, we’ll save her next century!”

 

“Well, is that a problem?” asked Zeus. “We’re both immortal.”

 

“But Lin isn’t and neither is the human race!”

 

“Actually, Lin is. But who cares about the human race? They’re horrible to each other and they are destroying this planet. If you ask me, the Shadows are doing them some good.”

 

“B-but you said you’d stop the Shadows!”

 

“I said no such thing. You inferred it, but I never said that. We’re going to save Lin and let the humans rot.”

 

“No.”

 

“I’m sorry, but did you just say _ no _ ?” Zeus looked perplexed. “You can’t say  _ no _ . What can you possibly mean by  _ no _ ?”

 

“I mean that no, we are  _ not _ going to leave the humans to rot. We are going to save Lin and the humans, and if you aren’t going to help me with that, I’ll do it myself.”

 

“Oh, dear Alice. Poor, poor Alice. You have no chance of saving Lin without me and  _ you _ can’t save the humans—only Lin can. You should know this already! Oh… wait, that’s right. You don’t have your powers anymore. All you have is a crippling need for human blood and a longing for your ex-boyfriend. I forgot.”

 

Alice snarrled. This woman—this  _ god _ —was  _ teasing _ her. “I can save her myself.”

 

“Why does she matter so much to you? You barely knew her for a week. Can’t you just give her up?” It almost sounded like Zeus knew something that Alice didn’t.  _ Of course she does, _ Alice thought,  _ Don’t be arrogant. But… she’s teasing me about Lin and she knows something about Lin that I don’t and she wants me to know. That’s what it sounds like, at least. _

 

“I—no. It’s not that she matters to me; it’s that the human race matters to me and she’s their only shot.”

 

“Oh, no. That’s not it at all.”

 

“Yes, it is,” Alice insisted.

 

“No, no, no. Who is your mate?”

 

“Jasper.”

 

“No. You fell in love with him, but he isn’t your mate.”

 

“What?” Alice was shocked. She had been head over heals for him. She had loved him. He was her mate, and even if they’d had a falling out, she still loved him. But now there was doubt in her head. “What do you mean? Of course—of course he’s my mate. Who else could…” Alice trailed off as she realized what Zeus was implying. Her brows rose. “Do you mean?” was all she could get out.

 

“Yes.” Zeus smiled. “You care about her far more than you know at this point.”

 

“How could you know that?” Alice asked.

 

“God, remember?”

 

“Why does this matter? We still need to save her and the human race!”

 

“No, actually, we don’t.” Zeus said.

 

“Fine. I’m leaving.”

 

“No!” Zeus cried. “You can’t!”

 

“And why not?” Alice asked as she grabbed her things from Zeus—Zeus had been levitating them for most of their journey. “It’s not like you will be stuck here forever. You’re a god, remember?”

 

“Yes, I am,” Zeus said bitterly, “You’re staying here.” Zeus grabbed Alice’s wrist.

 

Alice glared at Zeus. “Why?”

 

“Because.”

 

Alice felt like a child as she said, “That’s not an answer. Let go of me.”

 

“You missed part of the message on the wall. The one part that I can read. I get stuck right where you leave me.”

 

“Can’t you just follow me?” Alice asked.

 

“No, it doesn’t work like that. The second that you decide you don’t want me to be near you  _ at all _ is when I get stuck.”

 

“Good then.” Alice smiled devilishly. “You can stay here forever!” She twisted her wrist out of Zeus’ grasp.

 

“I’m not sure about that,” Zeus said as Alice ran away. But at that moment, Alice was more concerned about getting away from Zeus than listening to what she had to say.

 

Alice ran, and she ran, and she ran. She didn’t know why she was so upset about this. She had been betrayed before. But somehow, this felt different. Because Zeus really might be the only way she’d ever free Lin. Except, if she stayed with Zeus to save Lin, the humans would suffer. So she had a choice to make—go back to Zeus and save Lin, or try herself with the chance of failing to save the human race.

 

Maybe Zeus had just been messing with her to get Alice to stay. Maybe Jasper really was her mate. Maybe she could save Lin on her own. Maybe she could save the humans. But maybe not.

 

And so she ran, and she ran, and she ran. As though running would let her get away from everything that had happened. Everything that was going to happen. She ran until she had no idea where she was. She ran until the sun set. She ran until she saw the ocean. And only then did she fall to her knees and sob. She knew that she couldn’t save Lin on her own, but if she went back to Zeus, that would almost be worse. Then she felt a hand on her shoulder.

 

“Shh. Hush dear. I’m here for you. You don’t have to worry about anything. You know that I’ll always be here for you, no matter what happens.”

 

Her hair shifted in the wind. She turned her head to look at Jasper. “I love you. I’m so sorry about before. I’m so, so sorry,” she said and she felt as though what had happened in the past few weeks had just been a dream. It seemed so surreal. It was so nice here, and calm, and peaceful, and—

 

“I’m sorry too, Alice, for what I have to do,” Jasper interrupted her train of thought.

 

“What do you mean?” she asked. Then he held up a baseball bat. She took a step back.

 

“Jasper? What are you doing?”

 

“I’m saving your life,” was all he said before he raised the bat. She couldn’t do anything as he brought it down.

 

_ What is happening to me? _ She wondered as the world began to tilt. It was as though she had run too much and now she couldn’t move anymore. But what was even stranger was that it was a wooden bat. The world went black.


	9. Chapter Eight: Kingdom of Broken Souls

Alice’s eyes flashed open. She sat up bolt right. It appeared that she was in a prison cell. Her ankles were shackled to the wall and she was laying on a sad white mattress with lumps and holes in it.

 

She gave a tug on the shackles. They wouldn’t budge. She tugged harder. Still nothing.  _ What has happened to me? I’m a vampire for Christ’s sake! _ But then she realized she had no blood lust. She rushed over to the tiny, foggy mirror on the wall. Her eyes were brown. Not gold. Not red. Not black.  _ Brown _ . She wasn’t a vampire—she was human. That explained why the wooden bat had knocked her out. This must have been going on for a while. It was why she didn’t have her ability to tell the future. It was why her blood lust had returned. It was almost as though she was being rewound on a film of her life. But why?

 

She looked around the room. She didn’t care who had put her here or why, but the first thing she needed to do was get out. There wasn’t a door that she could see, nor windows of any kind. The walls were solid white with no cracks or lines on them. The floor was light grey concrete, and it too had no imperfections.  _ What is this place? _

 

The only things in the room were a bedside table, a foggy mirror, a mattress, a video camera, a toilet, and a sink. She didn’t see anywhere for them to give her food or water, which was worrisome. 

 

How had she gotten here again? She couldn’t remember. Something about Jasper… she felt as though something was moving in her mind. And in real life. But everything was still perfectly still and her mind wasn’t making any breakthroughs in how she had gotten here.

 

The wind blew her hair— _ That’s not right, _ she thought. There shouldn’t be any wind here. She heard the splash of waves. Her head jerked around. Nothing.  _ This isn’t real _ . Alice’s mind was spinning. “I’m trapped inside some imaginary place,” she whispered.

 

“It’s not entirely imaginary,” a voice came from nowhere. “It’s real to you and me,” a man stepped through the wall.

 

“How did you?...” Alice asked faintly. She had seen strange things, but this was pushing her limits.

 

“It’s entirely real, either. This is our prison. It is our punishment for listening to Zeus—Jupiter, God, whatever you want to call her. This isn’t the first time she’s escaped, you know. She fools each of us in turn, and when we finally discover her intentions to destroy the human race, we think that we can be heroes and stop her. We run away so that she can’t leave the spot where she has been left. She might not be able to follow, but once she’s met you, she can track you in her head. As her new prison is built in the ground, our’s is built in our heads. You’re still laying right where you were when the person you trusted most knocked you out. You will lay there for eternity unless you can figure out how to get out of here, which let me tell you—you won’t. No one ever has.”

 

Alice growled. “That asshole!” she yelled.

 

“Oh, I know, right? Are you a vampire? Or were? You smell like one. I was a vampire. The only thing that I retained was my ability to smell.”

 

“I was… wait, is my body mortal now?”

 

“I assume so. About a hundred years ago, I felt as though something was ripped from me, which I assume was my body dying.”

 

“But… what about the prophecy?”

 

“Prophecy?”

 

“Yeah, on the wall. I read it and it freed her.”

 

“Oh. For the rest of us, it’s just been a spell of sorts. So maybe some of what she told you was true.”

 

“Ahg!” Alice groaned. “I have to get out of here! I have to save Lin. And the humans,” she looked around.

 

“Honey—”

 

“Don’t call me that.”

 

“Okay then. Listen, the humans aren’t in danger now—she was the only thing harming them.”

 

“No, but the Shadows are. They’ve escaped again! That’s what she wanted me to do originally. She wanted me to find Lin and stop them.”

 

“Hmm. My best guess is that the Shadows are real and that she wanted you to take Lin around until Lin was taken and then she wanted you to come looking for Lin and led you right to her.”

 

“How can you possibly know that?” Alice asked, shocked.

 

“I used to have an ability to analyze a situation if someone presented me with evidence. I still sort of can.”

 

“Oh. I can’t tell the future at all anymore.”

 

“Don’t worry; it will come back a little the more time that you spend here. She can only send messages to magical beings, so she has to take away their powers so that they can’t harm her. But, like I said, as you spend time here, you gain them back a little,” he smiled.

 

“I still have to get out of here.”

 

His smile faded. “I’m sorry, but you can’t.”

 

“This is all in our heads, isn’t it?” she asked.

 

“Well, yes, but that’s not going to get you out.”

 

“No, but my mental power will.”

 

“What? Alice—”

 

“How do you know my name?”

 

“It says on your door. Anyway, if mental power was all you needed to get out of here, I’d have left two hundred years ago when I first arrived!”

 

“How do you know how long it’s been?”

 

“We get a notification every year that in real life it’s the first of January it the real world and I’ve been keeping track of how many notifications I’ve gotten. One guy’s been here for over five hundred years. Also, you’ll notice that mostly guys are here because we’re stupid enough to fall for this whole thing. That’s another reason why she takes away our powers. Guys are much more careless and spontaneous in their actions, which could potentially harm her.”

 

“Okay, that’s not what I’m talking about right now,” Alice said as she stumbled forward. She imagined the shackles breaking open. They did. She staggered through the wall of her room. She felt so weak as a human. Alice looked around the hallway. It was empty the way her room had been. There were chalk outlines of doorways along the hallway with names written above them—those must be where various people’s rooms were. It was empty though. She sprinted down the hallway. She felt as though she were running through malassise.

 

She looked around the end of the hallway. There were two more hallways separating from the one that she had started in. She ran down one. She took a left at the end of the hallway she was running down. Then another left. Then a right. Then straight. Right. Right. Straight. Left. Right. Left. Left. Straight. She skidded to a halt. Everything looked the same, but she could tell that she was right back where she had started. She could see her name a few feet away on top of a chalk door. She turned around and started going in different directions.

 

She ran and ran. Then, someone grabbed her sleeve right before she fell into an empty abyss. “Careful, you don’t want to go down there! The people who do never come back.”

 

“How are you here already?” she asked the same man who had talked to before. “How did you get here before me when I was running?”

 

“Not quite real, right? Once you know your way around here, you can appear anywhere you want whenever you want.”

 

She dusted herself off. “Erm… thank you for saving me. I never caught your name.”

 

“Bryan.”

 

“Nice to meet you Bryan. Have you ever wondered where that  _ thing _ goes?”

 

“No. I’m happy here. It’s nicer than real life. I think that you’ll find that too, if you stay here for long enough. You’ll start to realize that Earth is a lost cause and this place is only for the most elite,” Bryan said.

 

Alice took a step back. She didn’t want to believe that Earth was a lost cause. And these were the people dumb enough to fall for Zeus’s tricks. He had basically said so himself earlier. That wasn’t  _ elite _ . This place wasn’t natural.  _ Well of course not you idiot! _ Alice thought. It was in her head. There was no way that it  _ could  _ be natural. But she had to get out of here. People were starting to surround her, saying, “Yes, it’s nicer here. You’ll like it here. Earth is lost.”

 

“No,” she said, stepping back again. She’d been here less than an hour—that she remembered of course—and she already hated it. What was worse was that part of her brain was telling her that she should just give up. That she should give in. That she should accept this place and the fact that she was never going to save Lin. Maybe she should give it a shot. She was never going to get out of here as it was. She glanced back at the abyss.  _ Go _ , it seemed to say. She looked at the people and their pleading faces. “Fine,” she said, defeated. “What do you call this place?” she asked.

 

“This is the Kingdom of Broken souls. Only the broken come here. And it’s only there souls. But here they heal.”

 

Was she broken? She didn’t feel broken. But she had been break _ ing _ slowly. With Jasper and that whole fiasco. She stepped towards them and everything that had happened faded into the back of her mind. She smiled. They seemed nice. Everything here seemed nice. “Okay. Yeah, okay. I guess that I could get used to it here!” she said. They cheered. And that was that.


	10. Chapter Nine: Caroline

Alice had no idea how long it had been. It was just so  _ nice _ here. She didn’t want to leave.  _ How long since what? _ She wondered.  _ Oh, right. Since I got here. _ Alice couldn’t really remember what had happened or how she had gotten here.  _ Does it really matter? _

 

She was sitting there, staring into the Abyss. She liked doing that. It seemed to tell her that everything was going to be alright. It seemed to tell her that she was alright. It seemed to call to her.

 

“You really shouldn’t do that,” Bryan said. “It’s not good for you to look at that thing for too long. You’ll get lost inside of it.”

 

“I know,” Alice replied. “It just makes me feel better.”

 

“Why would you need to feel better than you already do? You said yourself last night that you’ve never been happier.”

 

That was true. She had said that. But… “Something’s missing.”

 

“What do you mean? We have everything here that you need! We’ve even created a room dedicated to videogames!” Bryan exclaimed.

 

“No, not from here, from me! I can’t explain it; I just feel as though I’m not quite whole and that I know why. I just can’t  _ remember _ why I don’t feel whole.”

 

“I’m sure you will soon. You just need to adjust to this place. I’m sure you already feel as though it’s much nicer than the outside world. You can forget about everything else!”

 

_ Forget about everything else _ . That stirred something inside of her. She had forgotten about everything else. Suddenly, she started scrambling inside of her mind. She hadn’t thought about her life in days.

 

It was hard to remember things from before this, she realized. It was hard to remember Esme’s name.  _ Esme _ . She missed Esme. Esme was amazing. And Carlisle. She missed them all suddenly. What had happened? She vaguely remembered fighting with them… but not much after that. She racked her brain for more… anything about before, but she just couldn’t get anything more than foggy glimpses about what life had been like. Life.

 

“Um… are you okay?” Bryan asked, a concerned look on his face.

 

“No,” she said.

 

“Why not? You were fine a moment ago…. Alice?” she had started to back away from him.

 

“What is this place? Why can’t I remember anything?” Alice asked.

 

“What? I told you awhile ago! You  _ can  _ remember things, you just don’t want to.”

 

Alice got the feeling that wasn’t true. What was going on? She continued to back away from him, on step at a time. She turned around and sprinted. She ran and ran once more. It felt familiar. Running from something. She paused. She shouldn’t be running. Why was she running from everything? She needed to face these things. But perhaps that wasn’t such a good idea.

 

She was now in a sector of the Kingdom that she didn’t recognize. Bryan was right behind her. “Just relax, dear. You’ll be fine.”

 

“But I’m not fine!” Alice shrieked at him. “I’m not fine and I never will be here!” Suddenly, Alice realized what she was missing.  _ Caroline _ . Lin was Alice’s soul mate, and Alice knew that now. She had an urge to race to Lin and wrap her arms around her. But she couldn’t do that. Because she was trapped here, in this  _ prison _ . She looked slowly up at Bryan. “I hate you all. What is this place?”

 

He sighed. “It is your prison.” Everything around her shifted. It went from plain, white, and welcoming to dark, destructive, and  _ angry _ . “Every time a new person shows up, it shifts. Zeus comes here and tells us to make you at home. Over time, you grow accustom to it here, and you accept it. By the time the next person arrives many years later, you have given up trying to get out and you are willing to help them accept this place. You’re the first one to be this persistent, and we have to do something about that.”

 

“You’re not going to do anything.” Alice growled. “I’m getting out of here.”

 

“No, honey, you’re not.” Bryan raised his hands and darkness swirled around him. “I’ve been her longer and I can control this place better. I can kill your mind. You aren’t leaving alive.”

 

Alice knew one thing—she had to leave alive. She focused on his arms being removed, the same way that she had in the past to make things happen, only this time, nothing happened. He struck her with the brute force of terrible and awesome magic. She let out a scream. “You asshole!” she yelled.

 

His magic was crushing her. Driving her into the wall. Suffocating her. She focused on him letting her go. He twitched, but his magic did not release. She focused harder. She couldn’t breath. Stars flashed before Alice’s eyes. They danced around her, almost as though they were taunting her. Her gaze met his. In one powerful thought, she forced him to release her and he did. She slapped him as hard as she could across his face.

 

“Mind, Alice dear. That won’t work. That won’t work at all,” Bryan said as he walked towards her. She focused on driving him backwards. He stumbled a little and fell, but didn’t stay down for long. She knew she couldn’t beat him in an area where mental strength was the only way to win.

 

So she thought about something else.  _ Something _ else. The scenery around them began to change. It shifted to a place that she knew well. It was Forks High School. Sure, there were places she knew better, but Forks High School was large enough to hide effectively from him while she tried to tear him down. All she had to do was hold it in that one place and time so that he couldn’t change anything.

 

She took a step and vanished from sight, reappearing in the girl’s gym locker room. She crammed herself into a locker and shut it. Alice could feel him trying to change the setting. With all of her mental strength, she held him right where he was. She tried to rip his power away from him; she tried to channel it into herself. And for one, brief, hopeful second, it started to work! But then… “Oh fuck,” was all poor Alice could get out.

 

Bryan slingshotted them back to the original Kingdom. “You’re not getting off that easy, missy,” Bryan said as he walked towards her. She shivered. Alice could feel every bad memory in her mind, stewing, steeping, brewing. They all started to surface at once.

 

_ “Get off your ass, Mary Alice Brandon!” her mother crowded. _

 

Oh no _ , thought young Alice.  _ What have I done now? _ “Please, Mama! I did all my chores and I started dinner already! I have nothing left to do; that’s why I’m sitting here! I’m sorry!” _

 

_ “I think you can do better than that!” her mother howled. “You get over here right now! Your father will be home any second now, and he’s not going to be happy that you’re wasting your time, and neither am I! Besides—I know what you did! You can try to cover it up all you want, but I know the truth. I know that you slept with Jamie Roberts!” _

 

_ Alice trembled. “I’m sorry, Mama! I’m sorry,” she sobbed. “It just happened! I’m sorry!” _

 

_ Her mother growled. At that moment, the door opened. “What’s going on?” her father asked. _

 

_ “I’ve discovered what Alice has been hiding! She… oh Lord, she’s slept with that horrible boy!” _

 

_ He snarled. He raised his hand and brought it down on her face. _

 

Then the scene changed. Another bad memory. Then another. And another. And another. Alice wasn’t sure how long it was before she finally came to her senses. “Stop,” she managed to croak out. “Please,” she begged.  _ Caroline _ , was the one word left in her tattered mind. And that one word brought her out of that horrible mess that was her own, tragic mind. She glared up at Bryan. “I hate your fucking guts,” she groaned. He laughed.

 

_ Caroline. _

 

_ He’s not going to be laughing in a second. _ “I think that this place has gone on for far too long.” The Kingdom began to shake.

 

_ Caroline. _

 

His smile faded. “What are you doing?” Alice could hear the panic in his voice. “Stop it!”

 

_ Caroline _ .

 

Now it was her turn to laugh. The structure around them was beginning to crumble. There was screaming. She felt souls being crushed beneath her new-found power.

 

_ Caroline _ .

 

“Your time is up, Bryan,” Alice said. Her voice was cold, and empty. His being—his  _ essence _ —went out beneath her glorious hands. With the Kingdom of Broken Souls breaking around her, she decided it was time to leave. And somehow, she knew how.

 

_ Caroline. _

 

She stepped over the rubble and ruin and walked towards the Abyss. “Hello,” she murmured. “You’ve been trying to help me all along, haven’t you?” And then Alice Cullen launched herself into the never-ending darkness with only one thought in mind. One thought, one truth, and one reality.

 

**_Caroline_ ** **.**


	11. Chapter Ten: The Journey

Alice stumbled across the field. It had been three days since she had woken up. In that time, she had discovered that six navy submarines had inexplicably gone down in close proximity to land, and in areas that they really shouldn’t have. Murder rates had taken a steep incline all over the country. She had been gone from the world of the living for only two months, and everything had changed. They only had about a month before this started happening more publicly, and not long after that point, it went international. On a brighter note, most of her memories that had been stolen in the Kingdom of Broken Souls had returned.

 

Right now, Alice was trying to track down Lin. It was slow work without being able to race around. She managed to steal a minimal amount of money, but it was almost all gone, even though she had been trying to conserve it. Alice felt as though it might be a good idea to go back to the Cullens. She wasn’t sure if she could face them, though. But she might have to face them anyway, because the were probably Lin’s only shot at survival. Alice sighed. She was in Washington and it would only be a few hours on the bus if she really needed to….

 

_ Looks like I’m pickpocketing someone for more money, _ Alice thought. She looked around. Train station to her left, McDonald’s to her right, Sheri’s straight ahead, and a gas station right behind her. The train station was her best bet.

 

She walked inside as normally as she could. She had shoplifted a pair of jeans and a hoodie a few miles back before picking a bike lock and riding here, so she looked somewhat presentable, which meant being less noticeable. Alice examined possible targets. She didn’t like doing this, but it was to save the world—and of course her mate—so she supposed it was acceptable.

 

There was a woman right in front of her with expensive-looking shoes and a purse that must have cost a fortune.  _ Good pick, _ she thought. Unfortunately, Alice no longer had superspeed, and the woman did not have a wallet in her pocket.  _ Probably in the purse _ .

 

The woman jumped slightly. “Oh shit!” she groaned. “If I forgot my sun dress…” she trailed off. She bent down, put her purse on the floor, and started rummaging through her suitcase. Alice saw her chance. She put up her hood and quietly slunk forward and grabbed the woman’s purse. She took off running. She may not have superspeed anymore, but she was still fast and had good endurance. “Come back here!” screeched the woman. “She’s got my purse! That horrid girl’s got my purse!”

 

_ Woman _ , Alice silently corrected.  _ I’m over eighteen by a long shot, _ but she of course did not comment on it; Alice most definitely did not have time for that.

 

She could hear people running behind her. She made the mistake of looking back and almost tripped. She quickly righted herself and continued on towards the mall several blocks ahead. All she had to do was get inside the mall and get lost inside the crowd.

 

They were gaining on her. They were so close to her. Alice’s breath was coming in ragged strokes now. She wasn’t used to tiring this quickly, even if it was not as fast as most humans. She picked up her pace. At the most, she had 180 more seconds of pain. She could handle that. She sprinted into the mall and took as many turns right away as she could.

 

_ Where would the most people be? _ Alice silently wondered. She glanced around. It was lunch time.  _ Food court. _ Alice brought herself to a walk. She shed her sweatshirt, hanging it over the purse, and fluffed her short hair so that it fell in front of her eyes. Alice headed down to the food court and sat down at a table near a gaggle of teenage girls laughing loudly. She began to look through the purse.

 

Evidently, the woman had indeed been quite rich. Inside there was the normal things you’d find in a purse—tampons, pens, a few stray pennies, and a phone. There was also a wallet. There were several receipts inside of the wallet, along with credit cards, a driver’s license, and 983 dollars in cash. That was much, much more than enough to get her from here to Forks. She pulled out ten dollars and decided it would be less conspicuous to buy some food than just sit there and hope that none of the police officers after her noticed Alice.

 

She got herself a meal and then proceeded to buy some new clothes. There were some cops wandering around with stern expressions on their faces, and it appeared as though they were probably the ones after her. She put on her new attire and walked out of the building as calmly as she could. Surprisingly enough, none of them stopped her.

 

She found a bus as quickly as she could and hopped on without a second thought. She had to save Lin, and she was going to do whatever it took, even if that meant returning to the Cullens.

 

It was a very long bus ride. She wanted very much to get off at the next stop, but she knew it meant that finding Lin would take longer than it needed, and she wouldn’t have that. So she rode the bus all night. At various intervals, she had to get off and switch buses, but that was expected. Finally, quite early in the morning, she arrived in Forks, Washington. The time didn’t matter, though, because her family would be awake no matter  _ what  _ time it was.

 

She walked up to the front door and took a deep breath. She could do this. They were some of the only people who could help her find Lin, and no matter what, Alice had to find Caroline.

 

Alice took a step forward and raised her hand to knock. She paused, though. This would mean seeing Jasper for the first time in ages, which was going to be hard, especially after their argument, and with all of this newfound information about her soul mate.

 

“I can hear you breathing, Alice! Come on in!” Esme called. Esme had always said that Alice’s breathing sounded like no one else’s.

 

Alice sighed and walked in.

 

“My god Alice!” Esme said, dropping her book. “You’re human!”


	12. Chapter Eleven: Family Matters

_ “My God Alice!” Esme said, dropping her book. “You’re human!” _

 

Alice nodded feebly. “That’s not important right now, though. I need your help. Please.”

 

“Of course. You run away and ignore us. We don’t hear from you for  _ three fucking months _ . But now you show up on our doorstep, begging because you  _ need our help _ ,” Jasper snorted from behind Esme.

 

Alice flinched. She had known that Jasper was going to be a dick about everything. She just hoped that she hadn’t underestimated him.

 

“Jasper,” Alice started, looking around Esme.

 

“Please, dear, come on in,” Esme said, gesturing for Alice to enter. Alice did as she was told, not wanting to upset anyone even in the slightest. She needed their help, and she couldn’t give them any more reason not to give it to her.

 

As Alice entered, she looked to Jasper and the rest of the Cullens, who were gathered in the main room. “I left for a reason, you know. I was starting to want human blood again, the way a newborn vampire does. I couldn’t bare to be around you all and know how disapproving you’d be.”

 

Jasper snorted. “Really? That’s your excuse? We’ve all wanted human blood at some point, but we’ve all dealt with it.” Jasper glared at her.

 

Alice shook her head. “It’s not just that. I was  _ becoming _ a newborn vampire again. Only my urges were worse. And then they started to disappear. But that’s not the only reason that I left. A woman came to me one night. She told me about these beings called the Shadows and there was only one person who could stop them. That woman—Zeus—wanted me to find that person and stop the Shadows. I know that it sounds corny and all, but it’s true. I found that person, a young woman in need, and we made it far together. Her name was—is—Lin. Carline. We didn’t even spend all that much time together, but I know she’s my mate.” There were gasps. “I’m sorry, Jasper. We were in love, but we aren’t mates. Lin and I are. She’s not human. I think that she’s immortal, but neither of us know for sure. She thought that she was human, but she isn’t. Then the Shadows took her. If she can’t get out, we’re all done. The Shadows will win this time. In the past, they haven’t managed to get ahold of the Chosen, but now that they have her, they could win.” Alice was close to tears. It was beginning to sink in—the possibility that without their help, Alice might never see Lin again.

 

“Okay,” Esme said.

 

“Esme! You can’t just agree that quickly!” Jasper said. “You don’t even know what you’re getting into! What even are these Shadows?”

 

“They are these creatures. I can’t even describe them. Every so often, they’ll try and take over the world. They can’t leave the shadows until they grow powerful enough, which rarely ever happens, which is the cause for their name. Few have ever actually seen them. Listen, Jasper, I don’t expect you to help me. I don’t expect you to let me back into your life. I know what I did was hard for you, but I need help from someone. So please, any of you, will you lend me a hand?” Alice begged.

 

“Of course, Alice,” Esme said.

 

“I know that you will Esme. I never doubted that. But are you really sure?”

 

“Yes. I don’t really have anything better to do, and I love you Alice. I want you to be happy, and I know that this will really help. I don’t think that anyone should have to lose their mate. Besides, the fate of the world is hanging in the balance, isn’t it?”

 

“Yeah, I guess,” Alice said. She threw her arms around Esme. “Thank you,” she whispered.

 

“You’re quite welcome, dear,” Esme responded.

 

“I’ll help,” Edward said suddenly.

 

“So will I,” Bella added.   
  


“Me too,” Emmett concluded.

 

“And me!” exclaimed Rosalie.

 

“And of course me,” Carlisle smiled. “We may not have left things on the best page, Alice, but you’re family and we’ll do whatever we can to help you.”

 

Alice smiled back. She hadn’t expected this many of them to go for it.

 

They all turned to Jasper. He groaned. “Fine! I’ll help, but don’t expect me to be nice!” Jasper grumbled. Carlisle chuckled at this response.


	13. Chapter Twelve: Teamwork

Tracking the Shadows was not as easy as it might have sounded.

 

With Renesmee in the care of Charlie for the time being, they had all night to work. And all day. And all night again. Alice, being turned mortal, was the only one that had to sleep at all.

 

The first night was slow work. They knew that they couldn’t just start racing around looking for the Shadows without any sort of plan or idea where to look. Alice had already established that the Shadows had no scent, and it was unlikely that they were just carrying Lin with them everywhere they went.

 

So they used what everyone was using in that day and age—the internet. They searched and searched for anything on the Shadows that might help them out. It was a long night, and they found nothing. Nothing at all.

 

Finally, at around one in the morning, Alice had an idea. Even after having guzzled six cups of coffee, it was remarkable that she seemed to be thinking clearer than the rest of them, even though she was running on no sleep and barely any food (they hadn’t had dinner). “What if instead of looking at reports of rumors, we look at the news reports themselves? Maybe if we see who’s been suspiciously killed, we can track them that way. From what I’ve gathered, they travel together, so we’ll be able to see their path.”

 

“Alice, that’s brilliant!” Jasper cried, wrapping his arms around her before remembering that they weren’t on good terms. He pulled away hastily.

 

Using this method, they tracked the movement of the Shadows over the last few weeks. It took a while to figure out where they had been most recently, but it took even longer to predict where they’d be in the future. When they looked closer at the map they’d used to track the movements of the Shadows, there seemed to be no specific pattern. The people they had killed were mostly vampires, all of which the Cullens had previously known about, and the ones that they hadn’t known about, they suspected were, except for a few. Several of the people on the long list of murders they knew to not be vampires. What could their connection be?

 

Finally, after researching each of the victims, they discovered what it was. All of the people on the list were people regarded by society as “mean,” “bad,” “nasty,” “weird,” or “unnatural.” These people had no close family or friends. Unfortunately, that spectrum was far too large to make an accurate prediction as to where the Shadows would strike next.

 

Alice groaned. “It’s no use! We’re not getting anywhere with this and we never will! We won’t find Lin, she’ll die, I’ll be stuck without her, and the world will perish.”

 

“Oh Alice! Don’t say that,” Esme comforted. “We’re going to find her. I promise.”

 

“Don’t make promises you can’t keep, Esme.” Alice snapped. There was something a little harsh in her voice, something the others weren’t used to.

 

“Don’t speak to Esme like that!” Jasper snapped right back at Alice. “I know that you’re hurting right now, Alice, but we  _ are  _ going to find her! Esme is trying to make you feel better. Even if you don’t believe her, you could at least say so kindly.”

 

“You’re right. I’m sorry, Esme.” Alice still sounded distressed, but she genuinely seemed to mean what she said.

 

“It’s quite all right, Alice dear.” Esme smiled, doing her best to have hope.

 

“Anyway,” Carlisle started. “We are going to find Lin—Jasper and Esme are right. There has to be something we’re not seeing that will lead us to finding them. There’s got to be something to be missing. There’s got to be a pattern. The Shadows wouldn’t just attack randomly. We know that each of their targets have some similar traits, but there still has to be some other way that their choosing their victims. No one kills at random, whether it’s self defense or in battle, serial killing or on accident. There is always a reason, and in things like this, that reason is trackable. We just have to figure it out enough to be able to find our method of tracking. We aren’t giving up just yet, because we are going to find Caroline and the Shadows, and we’re going to stop them.”

 

They nodded along, inspired by this sudden peptalk. Alice frowned at the map with pins showing where each victim had died. It was a long shot, but…. “Where did each of the victims live?” she asked.

 

Carlisle frowned. Then he grabbed another map, looked at his notes, and began to put pins down.

 

**WHEN SHADOWS DIE**

 

That was what was written across the new map. The letters had no curves and were perfectly written in one straight line. Each letter was two feet tall on this map, and each foot of lettering had twelve marks evenly spaced. The final letter—the E—was missing what they’d estimated was nine marks. Alice looked at Carlisle.

 

“When did they each die?” she asked.

 

He quickly marked each murdered person’s tack with tape saying the date. The dates seemed to also be a part of it. There was one killing each day and the people had been spaced out on the map so that the first killing was at the very top of the left hand side of the first W. Each of the following dates were spaced out along the letters in the order that one would write each letter, so the second killing was right below the first on the W. All of them stared at the bored.

 

“Well. That helps a lot.” Alice said.

 

Judging by the way the rest of the killings were spaced, they managed to narrow it down to someone that lived in one of just three small towns. The murder was coming up in about four hours—they were all killed at roughly the same time. Between all of them, three towns shouldn’t be too hard to scour for a sign of the Shadows.

 

“Yeah…” Jasper trailed off. “But does anyone else get the feeling that maybe this is a little too easy?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did anyone catch the Black Veil Brides reference? They're one of my favorite bands and I couldn't help but seize the opportunity presented to me. =)


	14. Chapter Thirteen: The Shadows

_ “Yeah…” Jasper trailed off. “But does anyone else get the feeling that maybe this is a little too easy?” _

 

Alice sighed. “It is. We’re probably walking right into a trap, but what else can we do?” she asked. “We have to find Lin, and if that means playing their game, I’ll do it.”

 

“Yes, but Alice, we need to think about this,” Carlisle said. “We have the material to track them down and find Lin, but if this is what they want us to do, then we shouldn’t do it. They must have something up their sleeve, and going right to them…. That’s playing right into their hands. We can’t do that.”

 

“What else can we do?” Alice repeated. “We can either go find them and save Lin and  _ the rest of this world _ , or we can sit in here and do  _ nothing. _ Which sounds like the better option?”

 

“Alice, that’s the  _ point _ . Going out there sounds better, and that’s what they want.”

 

“Then tell me what  _ else _ we can do,” Alice growled. Carlisle just sighed, looking at her with an expression saying he had no other ideas. “That’s what I thought. Now anyone who wants can come with me, but don’t try to stop me.”

 

“In case you haven’t noticed, Alice,” Jasper started, “we’re all vampires. You’re human.”

 

“You wouldn’t hurt me.”

 

“But we can still stop you.”

 

Alice shook her head. She took a deep breath, and knew what to do. Because she was still a vampire. Only now, it was voluntary. Alice closed her eyes, feeling her long lashes against her cheek. Her breath slowly came into her lungs, and then out. She felt her heart stop beating and her blood freeze in its tracks. Her skin hardened and her senses began to tingle. Everything around her became crystal clear. “No you can’t,” Alice said as she opened her blood-red eyes.

 

Carlisle stared at her. “Alice?” he asked, his voice wavering.

 

“Don’t worry. It’s still me. I don’t have the bloodlust, either. But I am strong. Strong enough to get out of here, even without my ability to tell the future.”

 

Carlisle nodded slowly. “Alice, you need to stay here. We don’t know what the Shadows are planning exactly, but whatever it is, they want you there. You can’t do what they want.”

 

“Watch me.” Alice moved quickly, thrusting Carlisle out of the way. She bolted towards the door, faster than any of the other vampires in the room. She felt so powerful. On her way out, she grabbed the map and ran.

 

She ran.

 

And she ran.

 

And she ran.

 

The feeling of running felt familiar. She’d been running a lot lately, but now she was running to something instead of following suit with what she’d been doing lately—running away instead of running to.

 

She made it to the first city on the list just one hour before the murder was set to happen. She looked around. She felt nothing. They weren’t here.

 

The next city was no different. Everyone was going about their business as usual, and nothing felt out of place.

 

The third city, however, held something. She could feel an odd sense of foreboding there. There was an eerie calm as she walked down the streets. The sun was beginning to set, and she felt as though something was coming. Her hair stood on end as she slowly approached the city center. Alice glanced at a clock. Ten minutes. She stepped into town square. There was no one in sight. “I know you’re here,” she said. “I can feel you. Just show yourselves!” Alice called. A soft breeze blew across the ground, sweeping past her and ruffling her hair. Shivers went down her spine.

 

“Hello, Alice,” a quiet voice said. She whipped around, searching for where it had come from.

 

“Where are you? I want to see you!” Alice snarled.

 

“But we can’t step out of the shadows,” another voice came. This one was slightly deeper. “If you want to see us, why don’t you come here?”

 

Alice took a step forward, approaching a shadow near a barber’s shop. “Do you have Lin?”

 

“Yes,” a third voice came. “We do indeed. Now come into the shadows, dear. I promise that we don’t bite.”

 

“I want proof. I’m not coming unless I know she’s still alive,” Alice glared into the shadows.

 

“I don’t think we can do that, dear. We’d be letting go of our only leverage,” the second one said.

 

“It’s almost dark. I just want to see that she’s alive, and then I’ll go with you. The sun is setting; in a few minutes, we won’t be able to get away from you. We’ll be completely at your mercy. If you won’t let me see her though, I’ll leave right now and you won’t have me. This is your last chance.”

 

“Fine.” The first voice grumbled. Lin stumbled from the shadows. Her hair was a mess and she was covered in blood and dirt. Her face was greasy and she had cuts covering her body.

 

“Alice? Alice is that really you?” Caroline asked.

 

“Yes, Lin! It’s me,” Alice rushed over to Lin, wrapping her arms around the poor woman. The two of them stood there, sobbing for a few moments before Lin pulled away.

 

“You shouldn’t have come for me, Alice!”

 

“Why not?” Alice asked, shocked.

 

“Because! They can’t kill me yet! All of the Chosen Ones need their mates, and you’re mine! You’re my life line. They’re going to kill you so that I can die! And once that happens, they’re free to do whatever they want! Everything’s over. You need to get out of here right now. I don’t want to die, and I don’t want you to die either, Alice! And what about all the people they’ll kill?”

 

Alice suddenly realized that they had all been right. She shouldn’t have come here. But she also couldn’t leave Lin. “I can’t leave you here. I can’t leave you here, Lin. You’re all that I want and all that I need. I can’t just leave you here.” Alice was crying again.

 

“But think of all those other people out there, Alice! Think of all the people who are going to die! After they get strong enough, it’s not just going to be the people society wants who die! So many have been  _ murdered _ already and so many more are going to be killed. And they’ll be important people. Or people with families. Think about how you would feel if I were one of the victims. As long as they can’t kill me, they can’t take over. When the time is right, I can end them.”

 

“But Lin! You’ve barely lived your life! You could die doing this. What if they figure out how to kill you without me? I have to get you out of here.”

 

“Alice.” Lin’s gaze met Alice’s. “I love you. But you have to go  _ right now _ before anyone else gets hurt.”

 

“No.” Alice said. The words that Lin had just uttered—I love you—were all that Alice had wanted to hear for God knows how long. The one thing that she knew now was that she couldn’t—she  _ wouldn’t _ —lose Lin. Not in a million years. She wanted to spend the rest of her life with Lin, but that wouldn’t happen if the Shadows were around. Lin very well might die destroying the Shadows, so Alice wanted to spend every last minute with her that she could.

 

She looked into the Shadows. “Leave her be.” Alice growled.

 

“No. We have to have both of you. Neither of you are leaving this place until we get you back in the Shadows.”

 

Alice glanced up at the sky. They didn’t have much time before it was dark and  _ everything _ was dark. “Fine. Fight me for our freedom. If I win, we get to go free. If I lose, we’ll both go willingly. If you don’t fight me, we’ll fight against you anyway and won’t go.”

 

“It’s almost dark,” one of the Shadows whispered. “We don’t need you to come willingly into the shadows when you’ll soon be engulfed in them!”

 

“Yes, actually, you do,” Alice said. She was trying to buy them some time. Shadows were all around them, so they couldn’t move without being taken. They were in one of the few remaining patches of light.

 

“Really? And why’s that?” asked the Shadow.

 

“Because of this,” Alice said. Something swooped around them. This was what she had been counting on.

 

“Leave them be! They’re mine,” snarled Zeus. From her, lighting erupted, reducing the Shadows—and the darkness around them—to nothing. “Come on. We don’t have much time.”


	15. Chapter Fourteen: The Return of Zues

After Zeus had taken them far away through portholes and running, they sat down in a small room much like the original one in which Zeus and Alice had originally met.

 

“Why did you come help us?” Alice asked. “I gambled everything on the idea that you might, but I wasn’t sure. Besides, I escaped your prison and everything. I left you for dead. Also, why do you look young now?”

 

Zeus sighed. “I’ve had a change of heart. You’re so much smarter than most of the people I usually attack. That prison is there to keep me alive. As long as I feed it, I can stay in this world. Once I don’t, I pass on to the afterlife. I can—”

 

“Wait!” Alice interrupted. “There’s really an afterlife? What’s it like?”

 

“Now is not time for that, dear. Now, as I was saying, I can either do that, or make it all the way to the place in which I was originally cursed, which would break this spell on me. Unfortunately, the people that I manage to find to get me out of each of  _ my _ prisons never last that long. They usually get hurt or try to run away, at which point  _ I _ imprison  _ them _ . If they’re hurt, that saves their lives. If they’ve run away, it’s just something to help me. And the age part is because I felt like it. Besides, I look better like this, right?”

 

“Um, okay.” Alice shook her head. If anything, she’d probably choose to look older—the younger people would not pay as much attention to her. She could also probably get better insurance—people would assume her to be less reckless. She’d been young for long enough. She just wanted to live her life and be done.  _ Anyway _ … they had other things to focus on at the moment. “But why don’t you ever tell any of them that you just need to get to that place?”

 

“I can’t as long as I’m traveling there. Actually, there are many things I can’t do as I head towards my final destination. So, like I said, I can’t tell my helpers where I’m really headed, and I also can’t travel any faster than a walking or normal human running pace. This whole thing was designed as punishment for me, and everything is to make it harder for me to undo. Now that I’m not headed towards where I was cursed, I can do whatever I want.”

 

“Huh. Alright,” Alice began. “So you’re not mad at me?”

 

“Not even a little bit,” Zeus said cheerfully. “You called me back to you, so how could I be?”

 

“I only called you because I was in trouble, but alright.”

 

Zeus rolled her eyes. “Well, I figure that when I’m done with helping you, you’ll help me, right?”

 

Alice sighed. “Fine.” She was guessing that Zeus probably wouldn’t agree to help otherwise.

 

“Um, I don’t mean to interrupt this extraordinarily interesting conversation, but who the fuck is this, Alice, and what did you do to her?” Lin asked. She seemed a little bit frustrated.

 

“Right,” Alice said. “You weren’t with me.” Alice spent the next fifteen minutes giving Lin a quick break down of everything that had happened. She told Lin about how she’d escaped the Kingdom of Broken Souls because of Lin. Because Lin had given her the strength and the reason to escape.

 

“That is actually really sweet,” Lin said. She was impressed with Alice. Alice definitely wasn’t what she’d originally thought. She wasn’t a cold hearted killer, she was just like everyone else, but a bit stronger.

 

“I guess,” Alice frowned. “I just wanted to save you and everyone else.”

 

“I know, but still,” Lin smiled. “I thought that you were this horrible beast when we first started this quest, but now I see you’re not. You’re amazing and sweet and so  _ human _ even though you’re not.”

 

“Actually, now I sort of am. I can shift between vampire and human.”

 

“That’s my fault,” Zeus said. “Someday, I’ll be able to turn you fully back into a vampire, but I don’t know how just yet. This was me trying to figure out how,” Zeus gestured to Alice as she shifted to her human body.

 

Alice smiled slightly. “I’m not sure that I want to be a vampire. I mean, I do if Lin’s immortal, but otherwise… no. Anyway, we should probably get back to my family. They’ll be wondering where I am.”

 

“Right, right,” Zeus nodded. “Come along. Sorry. I just wanted to get a chance to explain everything and I didn’t know where you wanted to go….”

 

“It’s perfectly alright, Zeus. But let’s get going now,” Lin said.

 

“Alright. Each of you grab onto one of my shoulders. And, erm, Alice, what city is your family’s home in?”

 

“Forks, Washington.” Alice stated as she grabbed ahold of Zeus. Zeus nodded.

 

“Forks, Washington: Cullens’ residence!” Zeus cried out. The world blurred around them and seemed to morph. For a second, everything went black, but then streaks of color began to stain the world. Before long, the living room of the Cullens’ house was visible.

 

“Alice?” Jasper asked. “Oh thank God you’re okay!” Jasper rushed over to her. “I’m sorry that I was mad at you before. You’re reckless and impulsive, but we all love you anyway and I can’t stand to lose you!”

 

“Ermph! Jasper, could you let go? I’m in my human form!” Jasper realized he’d been squeezing Alice just a  _ little _ too hard. He quickly let go. “I’m glad we can be friends again, Jasper.” Jasper shifted uncomfortably. He nodded.

 

“So which one’s Lin?” asked Bella.

 

“Yeah! Which one is she?” Edward chimed in. Alice snorted. She supposed that Zeus did look similar to Lin now that she seemed younger.

 

“This over here is Zeus. She’s helped me out a bit, and also almost killed me. This right here,” Alice put an arm around Lin, “is the one that you all wanted to meet.”

 

“Hi!” Jasper smiled. “I’m not sure how much Alice has told you, but I’m her ex! My name is Jasper Cullen.”

 

“Yeah, she mentioned you once, but she hasn’t said much about most of you. I know that you’re Carlisle. I saw you talking to Alice in the mall a while back.”

 

“How do you remember his name?” Alice asked. “That was months ago!”

 

“I don’t know. I’ve got a good memory, I guess.” Lin smiled.

 

“Okay,” Alice said. “Well, everyone, this is Lin. Lin, this is everyone. You already know that he’s Jasper and he’s Carlisle, but that one over there is Edward, Bella’s the chick in the corner, Rosalie is the blond one over there and Emmett’s the one next to her. This right here is Esme. The kid is Renesmee.”

 

“Alright,” Lin smiled. “It’s nice to meet you all. Um, I think I can remember all of your names, but we’ll see.”

 

“Okay!” Esme grinned, shaking Lin’s hand. “We’ve heard a bit about you, but not everything. Are you mortal or immortal?”

 

“Sort of both. I can only die if Alice does. Except for stopping the Shadows. That could potentially kill me or simply make it so I can die the way a normal human can.”

 

“Huh. And how exactly do we stop the Shadows?” asked Esme. “We never got a full answer from Alice.”

 

“We don’t really know,” Lin said. “All we’ve learned is basically that I’ll know when it’s time.”


	16. Chapter Fifteen: A Simple Conversation

Luckily enough, all of the Cullens seemed to enjoy Caroline. Jasper didn’t seem totally sold, but that was okay. That was expected.

 

The same night that Lin got there, Alice slipped into Lin’s room. She felt like it was high time the two of them really got to talk. They each knew that they loved the other, but they still didn’t truly  _ know _ each other.

 

“Hey,” was all Alice said.

 

Lin looked up from the book she’d found resting on the desk. “Hey.”

 

Alice smiled slightly. She quietly approached the young woman, shifting to her human form as she did so. Her human form had great senses now, just not as good as her vampire form, and she felt that it was better for being around Lin in—it felt like they were equals, like there was no power difference between them. Plus, Alice figured that if anything…  _ happened _ , it would be best if she wasn’t in danger of harming Lin on accident. She leaned forward towards Lin, who was sitting on the couch in the corner of the room. “You know,” Alice grinned. “we’ve known each other for some time known, but we’ve never really sat down and talked. At all.”

 

“Oh?” Lin asked. She found it hard to think around Alice sometimes. Everything about Alice was just… distracting. Alice’s lovely lilac perfume, her delicate body, her gorgeous hair, her excellent choice of style.

 

“So. Where are you from?” Alice asked, trying to stimulate conversation.

 

“Exactly where you found me,” Lin replied. She figured it would be best to keep her answers simple; she might lose her train of thought otherwise—Alice was that distracting. Alice nodded.

 

“How old are you?”

 

“I’m eighteen and going into my last year of high school.”

 

“Okay,” Alice smiled. “So—” Alice started to ask her next question, but was cut off by Lin. Lin just couldn’t wait any longer. She interrupted Alice with a kiss. Alice let out a mumbled complaint, but she soon gave in.

 

Lin turned her head, climbing on top of Alice’s lap as she pushed her tongue inside of Alice’s mouth. There was a duel between their tongues for a second before Alice won and felt around Lin’s mouth.

 

Alice’s hands were all over Lin in seconds, feeling, touching, holding. Eventually, one hand ended up wound in Lin’s hair with the other around Lin’s waist.

 

Finally, after several minutes, the two pulled away, breathless. Alice looked Lin in the eyes. “We can go as far as you want tonight, darling,” she said quietly. She didn’t want to stop, but it needed to be said. Lin just nodded and started kissing Alice again.

 

Lin’s lips moved down Alice’s neck, nibbling as she went. When she reached Alice’s collar, she began to unbutton Alice’s shirt so that she could go further. Soon, Alice was completely shirtless.

 

Alice let out a moan as Lin bit a particularly sensitive spot. “Oh God, Lin. I love you so much,” she breathed.

 

“I love you too, Alice,” Lin whispered as she pulled away and moved back up to Alice’s lips.

 

Alice want— _ needed _ —more. She felt a familiar ache building between her legs. She pulled Lin from the chair and shoved her down onto her bed, stripping off Lin’s shirt as she moved them. Lin unhooked both of their bras, tossing them on the ground. It was not long before all clothes had been forgone.

 

Alice’s fingers trailed down. She pulled away for a second. “Are you sure?” she asked Lin.

 

“Positive,” was all Lin said, as she panted. She smiled gently at Alice, before continuing.

 

~~~

 

The following morning, Lin and Alice were awakened quite early in the morning by Jasper. He looked disapprovingly at the two of them, naked in Lin’s bed. “Get up. We have work to do,” he growled.


	17. Chapter Sixteen: An Argument With a God

_ “Get up. We have work to do,” Jasper growled. _

 

He eyed the two of them for a second, seeming to notice the fact that the two of them were without the company of their clothes. He snorted, but then walked out.

 

Alice smiled slightly at Caroline. “I hope you enjoyed last night, because I certainly did.”

 

“I definitely enjoyed last night,” Lin responded. Alice leaned over, gently kissing Lin. Lin groaned. “But he’s right you know,” Lin said as she pulled away from Alice, standing. “We really do need to get to work. The Shadows aren’t just going to destroy themselves.”

 

Alice’s smile faded. She remembered the stories of the Chosen. She remembered how none of them were ever seen after defeating the Shadows. “Lin…” she trailed off.

 

Lin sighed. “I know, I know. I’m going to die. I’ve accepted that, Alice, and you need to as well.”

 

“Lin, I want to live happily ever after with you. I can’t do that if you’re dead.”

 

“I know. I want to get to live in peace and harmony with you too, Alice, but there are things that come before that. Like I said, I’ve accepted my fate. I’m going to die, but it’s to save everyone—every _ thing _ else. Just try to accept it too. I need you to be okay with this. I don’t need you to save me—you already have. You took me from my boring, miserable life that I was so unhappy in and gave me a wonderful adventure and showed me how to love. You made me happy, and you’re going to make me happy right up until the end. I just want you to understand that everything I’m doing must be done, so I’m going to do it.” Lin threw on her clothes and walked out the door.

 

Alice looked down at her hands. Lin was right, and Alice knew that. She needed to accept the fact that Lin was going to die. Except she didn’t. What if there was another way?

 

She rushed downstairs. Zeus had to know _ something _ about all this and how to save Lin. Right?

 

“Someone’s bright-eyed and bushy-tailed,” Esme smiled. “Have a nice night dear?”

 

Alice’s first thought was Jasper, but she figured that he’d probably have been too uncomfortable to talk about it. Alice shot Edward a look, who raised his hands in apology. “Sorry. Didn’t know it was a secret.”

 

“Of course you did, Edward. You can read minds.” He stuck out his tongue at her and she snorted. “Where’s Zeus?” she asked.

 

“She’s downstairs, I believe,” Esme said. Alice nodded and rushed down into the basement. Sure enough, there was Zeus, sitting there, just meditating.

 

“Hello dear,” Zeus said without moving, her eyes still shut. “I know what you’re going to ask me. It’s a lost cause.”

 

“But…” Alice trailed off.

 

“No buts, darling. None of us know what it’s going to take from Lin to destroy the Shadows. That includes me. You can beg all you want, but I don’t know how to stop her from vanishing into oblivion and all of that if I don’t know what exactly it is she must do. Plus, I have a feeling that it’s sort of what has to happen.”

 

“Zeus! You’re a god!”

 

“I’m aware of this. But everyone has their blind spot, though. Mine is the Shadows. I can not stop them. They are the ones that cursed me in the first place.”

 

Alice’s eyes widened. What were they dealing with? If these beasts had managed to bend a  _ god _ to their will…. They were well out of their league.

 

Zeus must have sensed what Alice was feeling, because she sighed and stood, turning around to face Alice. “Just because they got the best of me doesn’t mean that they’re unstoppable, Alice. It just means that I’m not the one who is equipped to stop them.”

 

“But—”

 

“What have I said about the whole ‘but’ thing?”

 

Alice grumbled. “Sorry,” she sighed.

 

Zeus smiled. “Listen, when the time is right, Lin is going to stop the Shadows, and there’s nothing you can do to stop that. I know you love her, Alice, but if she doesn’t do her part, there could be horrible consequences. My advice is to let things play out the way they’re meant to and don’t meddle with things you can’t control. There is nothing that either of us could or should do to change things.”

 

“Fine,” Alice responded. She didn’t plan on letting Lin die, no matter what Zeus said. She figured it would be easiest to just agree, though, and not bother arguing with a goddess.

 

“Alice, I can tell when you’re lying, but I’m not going to press the issue any further. You’re going to have to eventually come to terms with this, because there’s nothing you can do to stop this that won’t ruin the lives of everyone on Earth.” Alice shot Zeus a look.

 

She groaned. “Fine, fine, fine. I give up. I can’t win in this. All I want is to be able to spend my life with the woman that I love, but I guess that’s not something I should be fighting for,” Alice said as she sneered at Zeus. Zeus raised an eyebrow.

 

“Well, this is not the response that I’d expect from someone over a hundred years old. Leave me in peace, please.” Zeus sat back down, closing her eyes and returning to her former state of silence and utter stillness.

 

“But… wait! Zeus! Please help me,” Alice begged.

 

“There is nothing more I can do for you, child. I will help you defeat the Shadows but I can not help with this other thing you wish for me to do. That is all I have to say.”

 

Alice stood there in silence. What was she going to do? She couldn’t just let Lin die.


	18. Chapter Seventeen: A Day at Home

They’d been sitting around the house for days. There had been no sign of the Shadows since they rescued Lin and none of them had any ideas as to what to do.

 

Lin sighed. Everyone glanced at her. “What? Can I not make a sound without everyone freaking out?” She got up and stormed away.

 

Everyone shifted uncomfortably. Despite what Lin said about having accepted her fate and being okay, they all knew that wasn’t entirely true. She had been on edge ever since they’d found her and had grown increasingly agitated as the days progressed.

 

Lin looked down. She wished that she could help Lin. She hadn’t been able to find anything new on the Shadows anywhere that she looked, meaning no new ways to possibly save Lin. She stood and walked over to the window. It was stormy out. Thunder boomed in the distance, preceded by a flash of lightning. Esme put an arm around Alice.

 

“Don’t worry,” she said quietly. “Everything’s going to turn out alright.”

 

“Don’t make promises you can’t keep,” Alice responded. Esme sighed and kissed Alice on the forehead.

 

“You’re right. I’m sorry. I just don’t want you to give up just yet.” Alice nodded numbly in response and continued to stare out the window.

 

~~~

 

Not too long after, Lin was sitting curled up with Alice. “Hey Alice?” she asked.

 

“Yeah?”

 

“I was wondering…. Would you maybe take me to see my father? He’s the only family I’ve got and even though he’s not the greatest person in the world, I’d sort of like to see him before… you know. Plus, after everything that happened with the Shadows, I just really want to see him again. It made me realize how much he means to me and how I’ve gotta see him just one more time.”

 

“Of course. Whatever makes you feel better, love. We can go tomorrow.”

 

“Thank you,” Lin replied, closing her eyes and breathing Alice in. She wanted this moment to last forever. Just them and their thoughts, content and happy.

 

“Lin? You know that we’re your family too, right? Not by blood, but by love.”

 

Lin nodded slightly. “Yeah. I guess.”

 

Alice wrapped her arms tighter around Lin. Tears brimmed in her eyes. She loved Lin so much. “I don’t want to lose you again,” she whispered.

 

“I know. I don’t want to lose you, either,” Lin whispered back.

 

~~~

 

The following morning, Lin and Alice got up early.

 

“What spurred this change of events?” Jasper asked. “I thought that there was a law saying that neither of you could get out of bed before noon!” he teased.

 

Alice rolled her eyes at him. “We’re going to see Lin’s father.”

 

“Ooh! Do tell us all how that goes when you get back!” Jasper smirked. “My money’s him not liking your company.”

 

“Well, that’s sort of a given,” Alice responded. “Humans don’t generally enjoy even the vague presence of a vampire.”

 

“No, you seem more human now,” Esme said. “I’m not so sure that he’s going to mind you a whole lot.”

 

“I was talking about her personality,” Jasper said as he walked out the door. “I’m going hunting!” he called over his shoulder. “Anyone that wishes to join me may.” Alice got the feeling that she wasn’t really included in that ‘anyone.’ While they were on speaking terms, Jasper still wasn’t too happy about spending time with her.

 

~~~

 

Since Zeus wasn’t taking them to Lin’s house, Alice ran them there. It took roughly half an hour.

 

“Is this it?” Alice asked, breathing hard.

 

“Yeah,” Lin responded staring up at the small brick house. All of the curtains were closed and several boards from the deck were falling off.

 

“I don’t remember it looking like this last time I was here,” Alice said, gesturing to the damage and the closed-off hermit-house look that was going on. Lin vaguely remembered Alice taking her home from a bar several months ago.

 

“Well, with no one to keep the place tidy, it would look different, but this is definitely my house. I hope my dad’s home, otherwise we’re going to be here a while.”

 

Alice nodded. They walked up to the front door and Lin knocked. There was no response. “Dad?” she called. “Dad!” she shouted when there was no response. They heard a loud  _ clunk _ from inside and then some rustling.

 

Finally, the door opened. “Caroline? Caroline, is that really you?” A breathless man stood there, staring at the pair in shock. He stepped forward slowly, raising his hand to Lin’s cheek and touching it, as though to make sure that she was really there. He threw his arms around her. “Oh God! I’m so sorry Caroline! I’m so sorry,” he sobbed. Alice stood there silently.

 

Lin pulled back. “It’s okay, Dad. It’s okay,” she said.

 

“No it’s not,” he responded. “I was a terrible parent and then you went and ran away or got kidnapped or something and I wasn’t there for you! I promise, from now on I’m going to be better. I’ll quit drinking, I’ll get a real job, I’ll make sure to pay all the bills, and everything else I didn’t do before that I should have!”

 

“I have to say, I didn’t actually expect an apology,” Lin said, looking surprised.

 

“I’m so sorry,” was all her father said back. He wrapped his arms around her again and she hugged him back. She sighed.  _ Now _ he wanted to be a better parent. She supposed that it was better than nothing. After several minutes, he pulled back. “Why don’t you come in? I’d like to hear what’s been happening over the last few months.”

 

Yup. That was Lin’s father. Only mildly surprised when his lost daughter miraculously shows up on his doorstep and just calmly says that he’d like to know what’s been going on.

 

Lin nodded. Alice and Lin stepped inside. Lin explained everything that had happened with the Shadows and Alice saving her and how she was the only one that could stop them. Alice noticed, however, that Lin said nothing about them dating. She didn’t bring it up.

 

When Lin was finally done, her father just nodded. “I know,” he said.

 

“What?” Lin looked shocked.

 

“I know that you’re the Chosen One. All of them have been in our family, and judging by how long is usually in between each attack of the Shadows, I was guessing that you were next.”

 

“And you never told me?” Lin looked hurt.

 

Her father shrugged. “I wanted you to be able to live a normal life without knowing everything.”

 

“But….” Lin sighed. “Okay, how am I supposed to stop the Shadows?”

 

“That answer lies within yourself. None of us really know. None of the Chosen have survived, so all we know is what their lovers, children, and siblings have been able to tell us.”

 

“We?”

 

“Our whole family knows. At least on my side. We’ve been trying to figure out which of our children out of you, my niece, and my nephew would be Chosen. We were pretty sure it’d be you or your child.”

 

“How?”

 

“You just have the right traits. The determinedness. The strength. The willpower. The desire to please. The eyes.”

 

“So is there anything you know that could help me?” Lin asked.

 

“No, not really. You’ll know what to do when it’s time.”

 

Lin nodded slowly.


	19. Chapter Eighteen: Love

After a little more discussion, Lin’s father turned to Alice. “I don’t believe we’ve been introduced. I’m Xavier.”

 

Alice nodded in response. “Very nice to meet you, Xavier. I’m Alice.”

 

Xavier smiled. “So you’re the vampire that kidnapped my kid. You’re friends now, right?”

 

Alice frowned. “I wouldn’t say  _ kidnapped _ exactly. I saved her from the Shadows and then tried to get her to help me out. But yeah, now we’re friends.”

 

Lin shifted uncomfortably. “Dad?” she finally asked after much contemplation.

 

“Yes?” he responded, seeming curious as to what had her knickers in a not.

 

“Um, I don’t really know how else to say this, but Alice is sort of my girlfriend.”

 

“Like, friend who’s a girl?” Xavier asked much slower than was necessary.

 

“No, like we’re dating. I’m a lesbian.”

 

Xavier frowned. “You don’t look much like one.”

 

“What were you expecting?” Lin sighed, exasperated. “A child wrapped in the lesbian pride flag?”

 

He opened his mouth, then closed it again as though not really know what to say. “Alright,” he finally managed to work out. “And, erm, how long have you known… about this?”

 

“About being gay? Since I was twelve,” Lin said quietly. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner.”

 

“No, no. It’s quite alright, dear. I still love you.” Xavier wrapped his arms around Lin. “I still love you as much as I ever have.”

 

Lin buried her face in his shoulder, sobbing suddenly. She was so relieved that he was okay with her. She’d been terrified that he wouldn’t be, but she just had to have him know before she was gone. And he  _ accepted her _ .

 

Xavier reached a hand out, gesturing for Alice to come over.

 

When Lin had finally stopped crying, Xavier looked her dead in the eyes. “I’m sorry that I haven’t talked with you more about this sort of thing with you. I didn’t make it clear enough that I was okay with whatever you were.”

 

She shrugged. Then she frowned. Something seemed to spark in her eyes, and she froze.

 

“Lin?” Alice asked. “Are you okay? What’s wrong?”

 

“I know how to stop them,” Lin whispered. “I can stop them. The Shadows.”

 

Xavier’s smile vanished. Alice paled. “Y-you can?” Alice stammered. She wasn’t ready to lose Lin. She hadn’t expected it to be this soon. Truth be told, she hadn’t really expected it to be ever.

 

Lin nodded. “I just need a bit of time. They need a bit of time. I can feel them. They’re so close. I can feel all of their pain.” Lin sunk to her knees. “Oh God, Alice I can feel all of their pain. Everything! They hurt so much, and all they want is to be loved.”

 

Alice wrapped her arms around the young woman. “Shh, Lin it’s going to be okay.”

 

“No, it won’t!” Lin screamed. “It won’t.” Lin’s lips wobbled. “They’re calling me. The Shadows. They want me to come to them and show them love. Everyone else has tried but hasn’t really succeeded. All the other Chosen Ones. Each and every Chosen One has tried to save the Shadows’ soles, tried to show them love so that they can finally be at peace, but none of them have ever managed to. I don’t think the Shadows realize that they’re calling out. But I can hear them. I hear them screaming in the darkness for someone to care. Oh, these poor, lost souls.”

 

Lin and Xavier looked at each other. They didn’t know what to do for Lin. She was clearly in distress, but didn’t seem to be hearing or seeing anything anymore. She just kept on rambling.

 

“Lin, do you know who the Shadows are?” Alice asked. Lin didn’t respond. She just kept murmuring about how all they wanted was to be loved.

 

“Lin!” Alice said, her voice a little more urgent. “Lin, I need you to hear me! I can’t help you if I don’t know what’s going on!”

 

“Don’t you understand, Alice? I’m the only one who can stop the demons, and if I don’t, we shall all perish.”

 

Why did that sound familiar? That textbook that they had read all those weeks ago! That was what the Chosen One had said to her husband before she left!

 

“I  _ do _ understand that, Lin. But I want to help you with what little time you have left. You don’t seem like you!”

 

“I know, Alice. I know.”

 

Alice kissed Lin. “I love you so, so much, Caroline. I love you more than you could ever know.”

 

“I love you too, Alice. But that’s why I have to go. If I don’t stop the Shadows, everyone will die. I’m sorry.”

 

“No! Please!” Alice begged. Tears were streaming down her face. “Don’t go!” Alice spun around. “How can you just stand there, Xavier? You’re never going to see your daughter again! Don’t you love her at all?”

 

Xavier flinched. “I do, but you know she has to go. I’ve been preparing for this moment since the day she was born. I knew I was going to have to let her go. And if she doesn’t, then we’re all going to die, like she said. If she doesn’t go, she’ll suffer more than if she does. None of us know what happens to the Chosen Ones after they leave us, but I’m guessing that it’s not too bad—after all, they do save everyone, each and every time.”

 

Alice shook. “I can’t lose you, Lin,” she said as she turned back to the woman she loved. “I can’t lose you.”

 

“You can, though. This is what has to happen, Alice. It must, and it will. I’m so sorry.” Tears were running from her eyes now too. “I love both of you. You two mean the world to me. Dad, you weren’t the greatest parent, but you did everything in your power. Please keep going for me.” Xavier nodded. Then she looked at Alice. “Alice, I love you so much. I want you to find another person that you care about. Don’t stay stuck on me. Live your life, and don’t stop.” Alice tearfully nodded to Lin. “Good. I have to go now. If I don’t leave now, I’m never going to be able to leave.”

 

“But didn’t you just say that you needed time?” Alice asked, hoping it might buy her a few more minutes.

 

“I did. And I’m going to use that time to get to them.” She kissed Alice one last time, hugged her father, and then raced from the door.

 

Alice fell to her knees. “No….” Alice shook her head. “No….”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know, I know. Cliche. And a bit choppy.


	20. Chapter Nineteen: The Lost Colony of Roanoke

Lin strode out the door. She didn’t want to leave Alice like this, but she didn’t have much of a choice, did she? It was Alice or the world, and she couldn’t be selfish in something this big. Besides, her girlfriend would probably suffer  _ more _ if she stayed.

 

Tears trickled down her face. Why did things have to be like this? She shook her head. No. She wasn’t going to spend time thinking about the what-ifs. That would only make her more upset. This was what she had to do at any cost.

 

She stood in the middle of the street and closed her eyes. She could feel the Shadows. Their pain. Their longing. Their  _ want _ . It was so much.

 

“Where are you?” she murmured under her breath. The sun was beginning to set. “Show yourselves!” she cried. “I know you’re here!”

 

She felt a slight breeze about her. “I can feel you. Just come here. I can give you what you want. You don’t even realize that you’re crying out for it, do you? You’re all so lost…. I can help you! I know who you are. You’re the colony of Roanoke. What was it that happened to you?”

 

“It was Zeus,” a hushed voice came. “It was Zeus who did it to us. She didn’t believe in what we were doing—colonizing the New World. She fought us. She was horrible. A monster. She told us that what we were doing was wrong and that as punishment no one would ever love us. Instead, they’d hate us. And so they did. The last thing we were able to do before vanishing completely was curse her and warn others of her people.”

 

“Her people?” Lin asked.

 

“Yes. She was the chieftess of a Native American tribe. Unlike most chieftesses, she was truly in charge—not her husband. She was a god that had come from the sky to bless them, but fell in love with the people and decided to stay. She granted them all powers, but those powers would only remain as long as she led the tribe. When she cursed us, she accidentally gave us powers as well. We, in turn, cursed her, exiling the god to her own prison. She will remain cursed until ours is broken. All we want now is to be able to live. We know that we shouldn’t have done what we did, but we didn’t deserve this.”

 

Lin nodded. “How can I set you free?” she asked. More of the Shadows were coming out. They had true forms now. They looked like people swathed in darkness. She felt sad for them. They were just like everyone else, only with trust issues. They’d done everything that they had with the hope of doing what they’d originally been meant to do—colonize—and along the way, some part of them had been lost. Because that wasn’t the only part of the curse—not being able to love. No, it went far beyond that. They themselves couldn’t love. But something about the Chosen Ones allowed them to feel for a moment or two.

 

“All you have to do is learn to love us before the dawn of the third morning. Each day we will return to our Shadow forms and will not be kind. We will hate you for trying to stop us, and we will try and kill you before it is too late. Each night we will come back here and be ourselves once more. But if you do manage to love us, we will be turned back to humans. If not, well, one of two things could happen. Either you at least care for us and we are sent back to our prison of darkness for another hundred years, or you still hate us—and rightly so—and we continue our reign of terror.”

 

Lin frowned. That sounded… odd. And it was asking a lot of her. She couldn’t simply choose to like them, let alone love them. “Okay. What’s your name?” she asked the Shadow that had been talking to her.

 

“I am Ellinor,” the dark figure smiled.

 

Lin nodded. “Do I have to care for all of you?”

 

“No. Just one is good enough. Just to prove that we can be cared for. What’s your name?”

 

“Caroline. But you can call me Lin.”

 

Ellinor nodded. “What a lovely name,” she said.

 

The two talked until the sun began to rise. Ellinor winced at the rays of light. She hugged Lin. “Until next time, my dear. I must go.”

 

Lin hugged Ellinor back. Something about Ellinor made her want to cry. The woman just felt so  _ right _ . She felt good and welcoming. She was very kind. Lin realized that over the past evening, the two had maybe begun to kindle the start of a friendship.

 

She smiled lightly to herself as she watched Ellinor disappear. Ellinor was much like the mother she’d never had.


	21. Chapter Twenty-One: Goodbye

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next time will be the epilogue--make sure not to miss the conclusion to this story!

The sun was rising. It was the final day.

 

Caroline didn’t want to lose Ellinor. The woman had been so kind to her. Over the last few days, Ellinor had let her follow her around all night and the two of them had had an absolute blast. Ellinor really was a mother to Lin, and Caroline didn’t want to let that go. But she knew she had to.

 

She hadn’t gone home since she’d left Alice. It had been painful to do so, but she knew that if she went back, she’d never be able to leave. Plus, she couldn’t do that to Alice—not again.

 

She looked towards Ellinor. “I’m sorry, Ellinor, for not being able to save you,” she whispered.

 

“Oh, dear, it’s okay. I didn’t expect you to be able to do anything to vast. Just know that I love you, and I always have.”

 

Lin looked surprised. “Really?”

 

“Well, yes. I somehow ended up in your mother’s body when she was born. You don’t remember me well because that body died when you were seven, but I remember you. I wasn’t able to tell you before—it would give me an unfair advantage over the curse. But now that the sun is rising, I guess that it shouldn’t change much. We’ve only got a few seconds left.”

 

Lin launched herself into the awaiting arms of Ellinor. “But it does change things! It changes everything! I know it’s been eleven years, but I do love you. You’re my mother, and you still seem just like you were back then.”

 

The sun was halfway above the horizon. “I love you and I don’t want you to leave! I don’t want to have to leave either! I want you to meet Alice…. Oh, Alice. I love her too. I can’t let go of her. I was supposed to live with her for the rest of my life.”

 

Ellinor looked sadly on at Lin. “Maybe you will. If your love for me is enough and her love for you is enough. If not, I’m afraid we’ll both vanish back to that prison and you’ll become one of us. You’ll get to be with me forever, but you won’t be you. All of your good thoughts and feelings will be gone. You won’t care about anyone or anything.”

 

“Is that what happened to all of the other Chosen Ones?” Lin asked. She didn’t want any of this. She never asked for this. Why had she been so willing to give herself over again?

 

“Yes, I’m afraid so.”

 

Just then, they heard footsteps. Alice dashed up behind them. “Caroline,” her voice broke. “I had to find you.”

 

Lin covered her mouth. How long had Alice been looking?

 

“I love you.” Lin said. “I love both of you.”

 

Alice rushed over, and the three women grasped each other's hands as the sun passed above the horizon. There was a brilliant flash of light, and everything seemed to slow down.

 

Alice was calling Lin’s name. Lin was in excruciating agony. Ellinor was shrieking.

 

The sun beat down on the three. For a moment, the Shadows seemed to be losing. The rays of the sun were shining straight through them, and they appeared to be burning.

 

Alice wrapped her arms protectively around Lin, who gripped Ellinor’s hand tighter.

 

Then the Shadows were winning. They were turning into people again. They all slowly turned towards Lin.

 

“I think I speak for all of us when I say thank you for breaking our curse and allowing us to no longer live the way that we did for nearly five hundred years.” Ellinor kissed Lin on the forehead before turning to Alice. “Treat her well,” was the last thing she said. Her hair began to turn white; her youthful face began to wrinkle. She wasn’t the only one having this happen to her, though. It was all of the Shadows.

 

“W-why is this happening?” Lin asked, her eyes wide. “I broke their curse! They should be free!”

 

“That’s the point,” Alice whispered to Lin. “They  _ are _ free. They no longer have to live as beaten down memories of what they once were. In their last moments on Earth, they are loved and are themselves. Now it is time for them to go.”

  
“No! She’s my mother! She can’t go,” Lin sobbed.

 

Ellinor smiled softly at Lin, her eyes saying all that needed to be said. Then she collapsed to her knees and let out her final breath before turning to dust. The Shadows were no more.

 

Lin buried her face in Alice’s chest, crying. Her mournful sobbing was the only thing that could be heard as the sun slowly began to pass through the sky. Even the birds were silent.


	22. Epilogue: What's Next?

Alice and Lin looked at each other, smiling.

 

“You look gorgeous tonight, my love,” Alice whispered.

 

“So do you,” Lin smiled. She was so excited. It was finally happening! After three years of dating, they were getting married. It was like a dream come true.

 

“When we first got together, I never thought this day would come. I thought that I was going to lose you,” Alice said.

 

“I thought so, too. And yet here we are.”

 

“Are you two ready?” Carlisle asked, walking over to the duo with Xavier by his side. “It’s about time to start—”

 

The wedding march cut him off. “Well, let’s get this show on the road, shall we?” Lin turned towards Alice.

 

Carlisle took Alice’s arm and Xavier took Lin’s. They slowly began to walk down the long red carpet to the altar, smiling as they went. It was the happiest day of both of their lives.

 

~~~

 

After the wedding, the Cullens and Xavier sat around a fire in the back of the Cullen mansion, watching it burn as the stars twinkled above.

 

“I’m so happy to have you,” Alice said to Lin. “I am so lucky.”

 

Lin smiled, her eyes sparkling. “I’m happy to have you, too.”

 

“You know, we never did get an answer—what was it in that moment three years ago that allowed you to feel the Shadows and what they needed?” Jasper wondered allowed.

 

Lin frowned. “I’m pretty sure that it was coming out to my dad. Once I knew that he loved me no matter what, it was easier for me to accept myself. Once I did that, I could actually let myself love Alice. I mean, I already did, but I could accept it. I knew I loved her, I just, you know, didn’t really accept loving her, if that makes any sense. I know that’s bad of me, but you know how these things are.”

 

Alice frowned. “Yeah…” she said. She wasn’t sure how she felt about her girlfriend—her  _ wife _ —telling her this three years after the fact, but she supposed that it was fine. It happened a while ago. “Do you guys ever miss Zeus?” she asked.

 

“To be honest, not really,” Bella said. “She was kind of high maintenance and there wasn’t any reason for her to stay with us for a whole year and a half. After the Shadows died, her curse was broken. She could have just gone back right away.”

 

“I know, but I think it must get lonely for her up there. I mean, how many other gods could there be? She never talked about any of them. I think she sort of liked living with us. Besides, she was nice to us, wasn’t she?” Alice mused.

 

“I suppose.”

 

“We should probably turn in for the night,” Carlisle said. “Now that we’re only partially vampires—something that wouldn’t have happened without Zeus”—he gave Bella a look—“we need to get some rest. Besides, you’ve got your first day of college tomorrow, Lin.”

 

“Why again did I agree to go to college instead of a honeymoon?”

 

“Because!” Alice sighed. “We aren’t going to live forever anymore, so you should get to have a good education. And the longer you wait after high school, the less likely you are to go. In four years, when you’re done, we’ll have our honeymoon, and it’ll be amazing. You just have to wait until then.”

 

Lin loosed a breath, nodding. “I guess you’re right. But maybe… we could replicate a bit of a honeymoon  _ tonight _ ?” she asked seductively.

 

“Oh, I don’t know about that. It’s a  _ school night, _ remember?” Alice teased.

 

“It sounds so bad when you say it like that, Alice,” Lin groaned. “Just get over here,” she said spreading her arms wide.

 

“Okay, get a room you two,” Jasper chuckled.

 

Alice just shook her head, smiling. Lin and Alice walked up the stairs together.

 

“Alice?” Lin asked.

 

“Yeah?”

 

“We’re gonna be together forever, right?”

 

“Of course. What makes you ask?”

 

“Oh, nothing. I mean, we’re  _ married _ now. You’re my wife. I’m just wondering if this love that we feel will last forever.”

 

“I can’t promise that it will, but I’ll give you my word that I’ll do whatever I can to make sure that we always care for each other and that I make you happy,” Alice smiled down on Lin.

 

Lin smiled back, blinking her large, brown eyes. “I think you already promised that, Alice. Remember the wedding?”

 

Alice snaked her arms around Lin’s back. “Yeah, but it never hurts to say it again.”

 

“You’re right. I love you,” Lin whispered, resting her head on Alice’s shoulder.

 

The two of them stood like that for what felt like ages, just peacefully holding each other. And they were happy like that.

 

_ Just imagine,  _ Lin thought to herself.  _ Three years ago, I was dreading going to my senior year of high school and worrying about the normal things. And never in my wildest dreams would I have thought that my obsession was real. I always just assumed that vampires didn’t exist—that vampires  _ don’t _ exist. I wonder where I’d be if that were true. Hell, I wonder where I’d be if Alice hadn’t found me that night. I bet I’d be dead, or at the very least still an alcoholic and a smoker. My, have things changed. _

 

And so the newlyweds lived on happily, proving to this day that vampires  _ do _ exist.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, that's it, everybody! A huge thanks to everyone who stuck with this story for as long as you did. It means so much to me. Please leave a comment and tell me what you thought!


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